Jaguar will sell you a like-new E-Type for $356,000
It will build 10 E-Types as part of the Jaguar Reborn program.
It's traditionally pretty hard to get your hands on a like-new vintage sports car, but Jaguar is about to make it a little easier... sort of.
Jaguar will offer up 10 examples of the E-Type Reborn, the first of which will debut next week at the Techno-Classica Essen show in Germany. Jaguar will source an original E-Type and restore the living bejeezus out of it, bringing it back to factory-fresh specification before selling it off to a very lucky customer.
The restoration will take place according to the original 1960s specification, using Jaguar's massive library of records and drawings, as well as its collection of classic-car parts. The car you see here is the first example of the E-Type Reborn, a Series 1 in gunmetal gray. It went to California in 1965, accumulating 78,000 miles before being stored in the '80s.
The E-Type remains one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and you're not going to change my opinion on the matter.
There are some slight tweaks to the formula, though. Jaguar replaced "safety-critical" components, and certain body panels may have to be reverse-engineered, to eliminate rust spots or damage wherever necessary. It still sports a 265-horsepower I6 and four-speed manual, and it's estimated to hit 60 mph in 7.0 seconds.
Depending on the customer's preference, Jaguar will throw a few upgrades to the E-Type Reborn. It can boost cooling capability, install a full-syncromesh transmission for easier shifting and upgrade the brakes to the Series 2 specification.
Of course, you'll have to pay for the privilege of driving a time machine. The base price for an E-Type Reborn is £285,000, which converts to $356,000. That's before any sort of upgrade, too. But what you get for the cash is an actual piece of history that should drive like it did back in the 1960s.
The E-Type Reborn is Jaguar Land Rover 's latest restoration project. It also offers a restored version of the 1978 Range Rover Classic, and like this E-Type, only 10 will be built. Jaguar also revived the XKSS program, promising to build nine examples of the XKSS (a road-legal D-Type) that were originally destroyed in a 1957 factory fire.
