In the Beginning, There Was ‘E’ – Origins of the Jaguar E-Type

In the mid-1950’s, Jaguar had become one of the most successful racing teams of all time. With multiple wins at the fabled 24 hours of Le Mans and other races across the world, the manufacturer had gone from strength to strength both on track and on the forecourt.

With the accolades of the C-Type and D-Type safely committed to history, Jaguar began to look to the future. By 1956, the D-Type had begun to lose its competitive edge thanks to its rivals developing cars to bring the fight to the big cats. This sparked a conversation about what concept would take Jaguar into a new decade of not just design but engineering.

William Heynes, Jaguar’s famous chief engineer, would task the now legendary Malcolm Sayer to begin working on the replacement for the D-Type. He put together a small team to begin work on fleshing out a new idea for what the newest Jaguar would be, known as the Experimental Department. In a meeting from the 30th of January 1956, it was noted in the minutes the discussion of a ‘2 1/2 litre engine in a D-Type car. The engine to give 200hp at 7,500rpm and a top speed of 180mph’. This, was the first mention in writing of the D-Type’s sister.

Bob Blake, a master panel maker who worked inside of the experimental department, annotated his notes from the meeting in early 1956 that the car would have ‘an aluminium engine with lighter brakes and wheels and a new body to be 6” lower’. This wasn’t going to be a development of something existing but an all new project for the department.

Previous to this, the idea of a D-Type variant had been mentioned as noted by Workshop Superintendent Phil Weaver, who in an earlier internal memo relating to ‘Models for Le Mans’ and talked about a 3 1/2-litre production D-Type as well as the later mentioned 2 1/2-litre model. This meeting was to do with a rumor that the rules would be changing for the upcoming racing season were by only 2 1/2-litre cars would be permitted in all categories. Weaver wrote of this, ‘Two courses are open to us on this car – one is to design a prototype as small and light as is practically possible and run it purely for one season as a prototype only.’ Following up later in his notes with ‘It might be advisable to considering making the prototype car in such a manner that it would have at least limited demand (as a production model) in a better equipped version for purposes other than racing. In this case, the closed type body would seem to be the most satisfactory answer.’

Tom Jones, a Jaguar engineer who played a key role in the development of the C-Type and D-Type was given the task of producing the sister car to the D-Type. When he was given the job, William Heynes said that the car would be designated ‘E’ and must be ready for Le Mans in 1956 – giving the team just 6 months to develop and produce the prototype for the world famous race. The naming of the cars is an interesting point however. Beginning with the C-Type, its original name was the XK120 Competition but was shortened to its nickname of C-Type and because of its success, the next car would follow in sequence to be named D-Type which would continue on into the late 2010’s with the F-Type.

The designation of ‘E’ wasn’t just it being the letter which followed ‘D’ but also represented the experimental nature of the new project. At this point it is important to state, that ‘E’ was not for E-Type. Jones would rely on master designer and aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer to pen the new car. With the bodywork being calculated mathematically to give the least amount of drag, the chassis and powertrain were developed by Jones’s Experimental Department.

Decades later, the famous Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis would say of the project at this point ‘what was being produced was a sort of hybrid of the D-Type. It was because the ‘the old man’ (referring to Sir William Lyons) wanted a very fast sports car that fit in with the Jaguar’s image. This model was a low-key prototype following on the D-Type’. Of this first iteration, there are no surviving photographs or any visual records of the all-aluminium car, but it is known to have been fitted with a 2.4-litre engine as well as carrying a very early independent rear suspension development package engineered by the great Bob Knight. Although the car would go into testing, it was found to not be up to scratch due to its hasty development time, so Jaguar would field 3 D-Types at Le Mans in 1956.

1956 however would be the last year that Jaguar intended to race as a factory team. Between 1945 and 1955, the companies growth was meteoric and its road cars like the XK120 and the legendary 6-cylinder XK engined cars (which had been built off the back of the firms racing pedigree) were taking up not only the companies finances to produce but also the workforce to keep up demand. Racing, just wasn’t as important anymore. Sir William Lyons would begin the expansion of the Jaguar road car range around this time with cars such as the Mark VII saloon cars to build up a larger portfolio in the market, including the development of Project Utah which would ultimately form the basis of the MkI and MkII. This expansion would also take up the time of the engineers and technicians needed to run a successful motorsport department so the decision was made to stop.

Then in 1957, there was a fire. The Browns Lane workshops would be severely damaged in February of 1957 with dozens of cars destroyed, including the remaining XK-SS cars (road converted D-Types) as well as causing severe delays to the other production cars while operations were reinstated. With this final blow dealt, Jaguar in any form of competition would now be down to individuals and privateers, but were given help by the engineers from the former Racing department.

So with the company out of competition on the race track as a factory team, and no intentions of building cars for clients, what would be next? How would Jaguar keep their name in the headlines and therefore the cars rolling off the assembly line? The answer would start with an E.

The Le Mans project may have not made it to the track but it didn’t stop being developed. The Experimental Department were still working on the project in late 1956 to try and get something out of it. While William Heynes sat at his draftsmans table, Tom Jones, Phil Weaver, Bob Blake and Derrick White would work on developing the chassis and the mechanical side of the project.

In December of 1956, Malcolm Sayer would have the revised body design for the new car. A small two-seat sports car that took inspiration from the D-Type but held more of an emphasis on the aerodynamic stability and airflow over the front of the car. In early 1957, these designs were handed over to master panel maker Bob Blake to bring to life. This car, chassis XK101, was dubbed E1A by the team for internal referencing – E for Experimental, 1 referred to its type number and A was for Alloy/Aluminium. This name would stick to all those involved and in memory of the darling older child, the D-Type, the new car was referred to as ‘E-Type’.

As opposed to the newly released XK150, the E1A would use an aluminium central monocoque tub with a non-removable alloy frame work to support its bodywork and the car would employ the use of front and rear subframes for the running gear. E1A would be fitted with a 120BHP 2.4-litre XK engine as a starter, being as how it was an engine that the Experimental Department had access to, and was allegedly the same engine used in the previous ‘lost prototype’. Because of its smaller height, this allowed for Sayer’s design to be smoother over the bonnet without the signature power bulge.

E1A was what many would refer to as a ‘parts bin special’ with nearly all of the components coming from either the racing stores or from the production car spares department. The only thing that was bespoke to the project was that Bob Knight independent rear suspension set up. The car would use two swingarms to carry the wheel hubs as the moved through their arch, while the differential would be housed inside of a steel cage in the centre of the body.

By May of 1957, E1A would begin testing in and around the Jaguar factory. With the break-in period complete, William Heynes would adorn E1A with a set of trade plates (164 WK if anyone is interested) and head out on some real world testing around Birmingham with the one-off prototype and headed for the nearest by-pass to rack up an impressive 25 miles on the car, but later that evening the mercurial figure head of Jaguar, Sir William Lyons, would take the keys to E1A and head out for his own shakedown run. After 9 miles, he returned back to the factory with the engineer Ted Brookes waiting to receive the car. Brookes would be the man responsible for testing E1A on a daily basis, and after a check over the car would complete several 50 mile circuits before it was transferred to the MIRA test track for chief test driver Norman Dewis to put the car through its paces.

Brookes had officially signed of E1A as complete on the 22nd of May 1957 and the car taken into the factory and painted Pastel Green (a colour designated mainly for the Jaguar prototypes) and two small lights were fitted to the car and registered as VKV752. The car would be driven to multiple places across the UK over the next few months, from jaunts to Wales with drivers such as Margaret Jennings to day trips for testing at Silverstone.

E1A would find itself at the MIRA test track for weeks at a time after this. In June of 1957, Dewis would be testing E1A around the banking at the test track and record an average speed of 110MPH and a top speed of 130MPH whilst working with Dunlop to develop the brake and tyre package for the car. With the results gained from the E1A programme, it was decided around this time by the board and the engineers that the car should go into production after more development work on the cars suspension, seeing this new step forward as a game changer for the company and allow them to step ahead of many other manufacturers as the company entered the 1960s.

Between 1957 and early 1958, the car had been fitted with a 3.0-litre variant of the XK engine, as appearing the ‘The Motor’ magazine article by Christopher Jennings MBE. The car had been lent to favourable press outlets to do with as they pleased as long as they were nice about Jaguar’s new baby.

Jennings had decided to really try out and push the car (his wife had been a great fan of the earlier SS cars before the outbreak of war), with famously egging on Sir William Lyons by saying that the fastest car to complete his test had been an Aston Martin. He suggested that he take the car to the Brecon Beacons in the Wales, between Brecon and Carmarthen to a section of road he knew well to see what potential the new car would have. Lyons took the bait, saying he could take the car on this trip if he would compare it directly to that Aston Martin and other high-performance cars of the day.

As he said in his writings ‘On Sunday morning soon after 7am in perfect conditions we made a 20 mile warm up run and then ‘had a go’ – the result was almost fantastic.’ The journalist averaged just over 70mph on the course and on a longer nearly 50 mile stretch, the car would average nearly 68 mph and beat the Aston Martin’s time. Jennings would finish his statement with a very dry… ‘At no time did we exceed 120 mph.’

With some sense of fortune telling, Jennings would use these words in his article – E1A had the ‘potential to be a world beater’.

Development of the E-Type wouldn’t be solely down to E1A. By this time, the team had created the first true E-Type prototype car to begin refining and expanding on the concepts proven by E1A. To this, E1A would be used for high-performance test and for that, Jaguar racing manager Lofty England would call upon the service of trusted racer and Jaguar dealer Mike Hawthorn.

Hawthorn would test the car thoroughly and push it harder than it had ever been pushed before. Writing a detail and extensive report to the team noting the cars driving characteristics, mechanical aptitude and even down to ergonomic suggestions to get the most out of the car. He wasn’t gentle with his report… From this the team actioned several changes to E1A and the official prototype car.

In November of 1958, a simple engineers report in E1A’s fail simply states ‘engine removed to investigate loss of oil pressure – crankcase fractured on for main bearing webs.’ The car later went back to MIRA for further testing in December of 1958, but was called off due to bad weather. This would spell the end of the E1A story, after the engine damage and the abandoned test session, along with the success of the other E-Type prototypes – E1A was broken up for parts with its body panels sold to a scrap yard.

This was the end of not just the car, but the spiritual connection from those Le Mans victory and dominance by the Jaguar Racing Team and now the sophisticated road cars – A project which would give birth to a car the great Enzo Ferrari would call ‘the most beautiful car in the world’. This project, would give the world the E-Type and we, as petrolheads, should thank it every day for that.

‘We Never Thought You’d Make It’ – The Adventure Filled Story of How the Second Jaguar E-Type Got to Geneva.

The miles disappeared past the long-elegant bonnet of 77RW as the sun began to breach the horizon along a stretch of Autoroute on the 15th of March 1961. It had been a handful of hours since the car and its pilot had left the shores of England with a singular purpose – orders to complete a herculean drive from the Midlands to Geneva as quickly as possible.

The story however, begins the day before.

On the 14th of March, the Jaguar team had been testing their latest creation at the legendary MIRA test track. This creation had caused quite the stir in the press, with the car mentioned in whispers and rumour – the E-Type. At the hands of god-like test and racing driver Norman Dewis, the E-Type was being through its paces ahead of its full release. That car, was 77RW. An E-Type Roadster and the 3rd one to be built so far. It’s sister, 9600HP (the first car built) was nearly 800 miles away in the Swiss town of Geneva being shown to the press.

As Dewis ran 77RW through its paces and worked methodically with the team to record results and make adjustments to the brakes, the next part of the car scheduled to be developed. The day grew on. The repetition and routine only broken by a telephone call, with a message which would become one of the most famous in automotive folklore.

The track manager at MIRA walked across the track during the cars downtime at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He announced to the team that the factory had rang and that 77RW would need to be returned to Coventry without delay. This sense of urgency instilled in the track managers voice made Dewis jump in the car and head for home.

As 77RW and Dewis pulled up to the workshop, two important names in Jaguar history would hove into view. William Heynes and Bob Knight, a pair of engineers instrumental in the mechanical side of Jaguar’s dominance both of the road and on the track. As Dewis got out of the car and approached the factory team, his first question was ‘what’s going on?’. Unbeknownst to Dewis, the factory had received a fairly frantic phone call from Geneva.

At the same time as Dewis had been putting 77RW through its paces, Jaguar PR Manager Bob Berry had been given pre-show demonstrations to the press at the Geneva Motor Show. So much was the hype around the car, and so impressed were the media that Berry was struggling to cope with the amount of ride alongs that 9600HP was being asked to perform. With this, and with the thought of potential orders for the new car slipping away, Jaguar’s figurehead, Sir William Lyons, rang the factory and ordered that the other car be brought to Geneva.

That message was the urgent message that had been given to the MIRA track manager.

As 77RW was wheeled into the workshop to be checked over, the plan was laid out to Dewis. He would drive from Coventry to Dover, from there he would get the 10pm ferry to Ostend in Belgium and then onwards to Geneva with the car needing to arrive by 10am. Dewis agreed and said that he would come back later on and pick up the car, to which he was told ‘no, you’ll go as soon as its ready.’ With Dewis protesting gently that he hadn’t got any change of clothes or to let his wife know, but the team had a response to that. A member of the team had already informed Mrs Dewis of her husbands adventure and gone round to his house to pick up a bag which waited for him in his office inside of the development workshop.

As 77RW reversed out of the garage, the sun had already set. It was 7:45pm on the 14th of March 1961.

The team handed him a ticket for the 10pm ferry and a brown envelope with fuel money. Wait, Dewis thought. 10PM!? That drive was easily over 4 hours from Coventry to Dover, and it would have been for mere mortals but this was Norman Dewis and he was on a mission.

The green roadster roared through the villages and towns as it made its way southbound towards its overnight crossing. On that night in March of 1961, 77RW was probably the fastest machine in the UK as it soared towards the southern town of Dover as the car ate up the 200 mile leg. As the car pulled up to the port, Dewis checked his watch. It was 9:45pm… He had covered that ground in just 2 hours.

However, as he drove through the empty lines towards the boat he found that the gates to the ferry had been shut 10 minutes before, far before the ferry’s departure time of 10pm. As Dewis’s heart sank, a man with a torch walked past the car set against the cold spring air. ‘Is that the Ostend boat?’ Dewis asked this shadow, it responded with ‘you’re too late”. Dewis quickly fired back with ‘I need to be on it’, whilst he called out to the shadowy figure, the torch light worked its way across the Malcolm Sayer designed sports car’s bodywork, ‘What’s this then?’ said the figure to which Dewis retorted with some gravel in his voice that it was the new Jaguar E-Type. Before he could even finish his sentence, the voice cracked back with ‘THE ONE THAT LAUNCHED YESTERDAY?! IT’S ALL OVER THE NEWSPAPERS. HANG ON…’ The sound of a walkie-talkies static broke the situation, and with a simple and direct sentence that shadowy figure would set a legend in motion. ‘You’ve got to get this guy on. He’s got the new Jag’.

With that, the Ferry crew lowered the ramp and held the boat so that one man and a sports car could enter the history books.

As soon as the ramp lowered on the other side of the channel, the E-Type was heading south at speed.

Dewis and 77RW had 500 miles to cover through the night and there was no time to waste. Around Brussels, as the sun begun to burn off the early morning mist, the pace of the car and its pilot would increase, averaging around 80mph through the Black Forest. Every half an hour or so, Dewis would glance down at the roadmap which served as his companion on this mad dash to Switzerland. Throughout this entire endeavour, he only had to refuel the E-Type once. As the minutes ticked by, and the countdown grew shorter and shorter to the 10am deadline, the odometer on this historic E-Type grew larger.

The lane markers flashed by with the passing of the hands on the clock, as another day was breaking over the continent. And then, like a beacon in the distance, the end was in sight. Geneva.

The driver and car made their way through the streets of the town towards the final point. As 77RW rounded the final corner, there, looking at his watch was Sir William.

Dewis got out of the car as Sir William walked over to his test driver, the first words spoken to him were ‘Thought you’d do it, Dewis.’ A brief but poignant sentiment from a famously stoic man. Next to approach the tired and sore driver was the wonderful Lofty England, Jaguar’s Service and Race Manager, who had been timing the run from Coventry and working out the average speeds Dewis would need to achieve to even be in with a chance of making it in time.

With arms outstretched and a face filled with joy and adoration for his friend, Lofty England would say the words which would cement this story into the annuls of automotive history and solidify the legend of the Jaguar E-Type. ‘Well done Norman. Fantastic driving. We worked your speed out’ and as a final statement which showed that neither Dewis, Jaguar or the E-Type would ever be underestimated and its prowess as a GT car would pass into folklore ‘we never thought you’d make it!’

But, the job wasn’t over. Just as soon as Dewis had arrived with 77RW he was ordered to begin demonstrations right away, the hotel bed and the sweet release of slumber would have to wait for this heroic man. Those who got in the car with Dewis that day had no idea that the car and its driver had just gone on an adventure which sadly outlived them both but went on to root their names in the history books forever.

Jaguar had originally planned to make just 250 examples of the E-Type, but thanks to the work of Dewis, Sayer, England, Berry, Knight, Heynes and the Jaguar team, the car would go on to be in production for the next 14 years and sell over 72,000 examples of this beautiful sports car.