Their hearts are in the right place but aren’t they working on the wrong thing?
by Wallace Wyss –
I would like to say it’s me that’s been urging sports car makers to bring back their favorites but now it’s a new trend not suggested by me, this re-visiting the past to make some Oldies but Goodies. I think it’s a case of the automakers realizing they need to do something to get attention (especially if their current cars lack luster). So it is that Jaguar announced they are bringing back the XKE – AKA the E-Type.
The good thing is that Tata, the Indian firm that owns Jaguar realizes how important the E-type is to the company’s image. They have picked a very early one, a 1961, offering both a roadster and a coupe in what they call the E-Type 60 Collection. The engine will be th 3.8-liter six-cylinder. And oddly the colors will be only two the Opalescent Gunmetal Grey hardtop, and a British Racing Green model they call Drop Everything Green.
Now comes the strange (and to me totally inexplicable ) part–each of the six buyers will have to buy both the coupe and the roadster. And Jaguar won’t allow changes in color, it’s Flat Out Grey paint with Smooth Black leather for the coupe and the roadsters are Drop Everything Green with Suede Green interiors.
The interiors seem pretty original in the photos, at least the toggle switches are there. Jaguar pledges the two unique exterior hues won’t be used again. A few extras are a tailored car cover, tool roll, and jack storage bag.
Maybe for legal reasons (so not to have to qualify it as a modern car) they’re keeping the 4-speed gearbox but a better one than the 1961 models came with, the new ones synched down to first gear with helical-cut gears.
Output from the inline-six won’t change from 265 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque, modern updates include electronic ignition and an alloy radiator fitted with an electric cooling fan. They’ll also be equipped with power steering and air conditioning. Cars will be available in left – or right-hand drive according to buyer preference.
Pricing is the inexplicable part. You can’t buy just one but have to buy the pair. And I read it’s $450,000 for the first one but can’t find mention of the price for two. “All right, mate, I’ll sell the extra one” I can hear you say but I have to ask who wants to buy an unoriginal for almost half a mill? Ironically you wonder if they feature a class for E-types at Pebble Beach some time in the future, would these re-furbished cars be dinged points for being un-original?
While in ordinary times I would celebrate Jaguar flashing back to the good old days I remember recently they promised “no more internal combustion cars will be offered after 2025,” which, in model years, is just some 30-odd months away, so it seems like every man jack on board should be working on mass producible electric Jaguars and not diddling about with oldies but goodies, basically restomod used cars, especially when we’re talking just twelve cars.
They need to be all in on electrics. And, to use a British horse racing term for their chosen pace, I’d say:”Cor Blimey, give it a bit of stick, man!”
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is co-host of Autotalk, a weekly radio show on cars emanating from KUCR-FM Riverside.
Photo credit: Jaguar
On a resent trip to Boise I stopped at a traffic light. While I sat a white sedan pulled up next to me. I thought it was a Hyundai until I noticed the Jaguar emblem on the wheel center cap. This is a the real issue with Jaguar at the moment.