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Monday, April 15, 2013

Jaguar XK-E (E Type)

Here are some images of Monogram's 1/8 scale Jaguar XK-E (E Type) sports car with a shall we say, a well used patina look to it. Despite the nice and shiny, fully restored look that many an E Type has nowadays. Back when I was a young lad (early 70's) there were plenty of E types around, and most of them had a heavily preowned look to them.

From Wikipedia"

The Jaguar E-Type (a.k.a. Jaguar XK-E) is a British sports car, manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of good looks, high performance, and competitive pricing established the marque as an icon of 1960s motoring. More than 70,000 E-Types were sold.
In March 2008, the Jaguar E-Type ranked first in a The Daily Telegraph online list of the world's "100 most beautiful cars" of all time.
In 2004, Sports Car International magazine placed the E-Type at number one on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s.

The E-Type was initially designed and shown to the public as a rear-wheel drive grand tourer in two-seater coupé form (FHC or Fixed Head Coupé) and as a two-seater convertible (OTS or Open Two Seater). A "2+2" four-seater version of the coupé, with a lengthened wheelbase, was released several years later.
On its release Enzo Ferrari called it "The most beautiful car ever made".
Later model updates of the E-Type were officially designated "Series 2" and "Series 3", and over time the earlier cars have come to be referred to as, sensibly, "Series 1" and "Series 1½".
Of the "Series 1" cars, Jaguar manufactured some limited-edition variants, inspired by motor racing :
  • The "'Lightweight' E-Type" which was apparently intended as a sort of follow-up to the D-Type. Jaguar planned to produce 18 units but ultimately only a dozen were reportedly built. Of those, two have been converted to Low-Drag form and two others are known to have been wrecked and deemed to be beyond repair, although one has now been rebuilt. These are exceedingly rare and sought after by collectors.
  • The "Low Drag Coupé" was a one-off technical exercise which was ultimately sold to a Jaguar racing driver. It is presently believed to be part of the private collection of the current Viscount Cowdray.
The New York City Museum of Modern Art recognised the significance of the E-Type's design in 1996 by adding a blue roadster to its permanent design collection, one of only six automobiles to receive the distinction.

4 comments:

FBMinis said...

Great weathering, I really enjoy the aged look. This is where auto modellers fail, imho. All that shining and pristine looking body painting and engine bays get old after a while.

-Warren Zoell said...

Yes they do. Plus they start to look a little toy like after a while.

Diego said...

Gorgeous model. I love model cars, but not real cars.

-Warren Zoell said...

Gracias Diego!