JaguarE-Type

Jaguar E-Type in Popular Culture

The E-Type in the Museum of Modern Art, in films from The Ipcress File to Austin Powers, at a royal wedding and on a British stamp, with what the record shows of the remark everyone credits to Enzo Ferrari.

About the pictureA 1963 roadster in the Newport Car Museum, not the roadster in MoMA's collection.

A black E-Type roadster with its bonnet tipped forward on a white plinth in a gallery.
Stand-in A 1963 Series 1 3.8 roadster shown as a gallery exhibit, its bonnet (hood) tipped forward, at the Newport Car Museum, Rhode Island, in April 2026: a stand-in, not the museum car this page describes.Charles from Port Chester, New York, CC0

In 1996 New York's Museum of Modern Art put an E-Type on show and then kept it, the third car in a collection of cars that had begun with a Cisitalia in 1972. By then the car had already spent 35 years in films, advertisements and, by one widely repeated account, the judgement of Enzo Ferrari. Some of that reputation is on record and some of it is hearsay. This page keeps the two apart.⁠1​2

The Museum of Modern Art

In 1996 the Museum of Modern Art showed a 1963 roadster in an exhibition of its own, Refining the Sports Car: Jaguar's E-Type, from 3 April to 20 August, and Jaguar gave the museum the car. MoMA records the gift, "Gift of Jaguar Cars", on 9 April 1996, under the title "E-Type Roadster", "designed 1961 (this example 1963)", credited to Sir William Lyons, Malcolm Sayer and William M. Heynes. It was the third car the museum acquired, after the Cisitalia 202 GT in 1972 and a Ferrari Formula 1 car in 1994, and the collection now holds eight. The E-Type is in MoMA's collection; whether it is on view today, no source read says.

The museum's essay for the exhibition put the design in one sentence: "The relationship between the empirical laws of science and the beauty of art or design is apparent."

The museum's name was attached to the car long before the gift. Jaguar's American advertisements of 1967 quoted the Museum of Modern Art as saying that the XK-E offered "a standard of performance and finish found only in cars normally costing twice as much money"; where MoMA said it has not been traced, and no exhibition the museum held between 1929 and 1989 includes a Jaguar.⁠1​3​4​5​6

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Enzo Ferrari's remark

The line everyone knows has a source, and it is not a public one. The journalist Gino Rancati, Enzo Ferrari's friend for many years, wrote in 1988 that when the E-Type came out Ferrari told him he considered it "the most beautiful car in the world". Jaguar has repeated the line since at least 2011, sometimes as "the most beautiful car ever made". No record of Ferrari saying it in public, at Geneva or elsewhere in 1961, has been found.

A pale yellow E-Type coupé in a museum display beneath a wall panel headed 'The Swinging 60s'.
A Series 1 coupé beneath a wall panel on the 1960s at the Coventry Transport Museum: the panel's quotation of Enzo Ferrari is the museum's, not evidence that he said it.Draco2008 from UK, CC BY 2.0

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Films and television

The Internet Movie Cars Database listed some 700 appearances, in April 2026, by E-Types on film and television. A few of the best known, with the cars the database records:

  • 1965

    The Ipcress File

    A 1961 E-Type.

  • 1968

    Diabolik

    Two E-Types, of 1961 and 1962; in Finland the film was Mies mustassa Jaguarissa, "the man in the black Jaguar".

  • 1969

    The Italian Job

    E-Types of 1961 and 1962.

  • 1971

    Harold and Maude

    An XK-E that Harold turns into a hearse.

  • 1997

    Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

    An American-market XK-E convertible of 1967.

  • 1999

    Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

    The same car.

  • 2011

    The Mechanic

    A Series 1 coupé cast for the part, and destroyed in it.

In the Austin Powers films the car has its own name. The films' licensed books call it the Shaguar: "my 1967 convertible Shaguar", in Michael McCullers's book in Austin's voice; and The Official World of Austin Powers says that "Austin had the Shaguar re-sprayed in a Union Jack paint scheme, partly as a tribute to Her Majesty".⁠2​11​12​13​14

A replica of the hearse Harold builds from an XK-E in Harold and Maude (1971), and the story of the film, told by the enthusiast who built it.Video: The "Harold and Maude" Jaguar E-Type Hearse: A True Undertaking, Petrolicious, 2017

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The royal wedding, 19 May 2018

On the evening of their wedding, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex drove from Windsor Castle to their reception at Frogmore House in the E-Type Zero, a 1968 roadster that Jaguar Land Rover Classic had converted to electric power. The electric E-Type page tells the car's story.⁠15​16​9

The E-Type Zero leaving Windsor Castle for Frogmore House, 19 May 2018.Video: Newlyweds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle drive to evening reception | ITV News, ITV News, 2018

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Rowan Atkinson and Man vs Bee

In the Netflix series Man vs Bee (2022), an E-Type coupé is wrecked on screen: its rear window broken, its dashboard set alight and its bodywork cut open. The damage was real. Atkinson told The Daily Telegraph, as Forbes Australia reported in October 2025, that he cut through the car's rear bodywork himself with an angle grinder during filming, and that after filming he bought the car.⁠17

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Stamps and anniversaries

In August 2013 Royal Mail put a red 1961 Series 1 roadster on a first-class stamp, one of six in its British Auto Legends issue. Jaguar has marked the car's anniversaries itself: the 50th in 2011; the 60th in 2021, with the E-Type 60 Collection of restored cars in matched pairs, after an F-Type Heritage 60 Edition announced in December 2020; and, in June 2024, 50 years since the end of production, with 50 E-Types gathered at the London Concours and two Commemorative drophead coupés, open cars, unveiled that October, which the Reborn page describes.

Jaguar's own stories grew with the anniversaries. In 2011 it wrote that Frank Sinatra was "reputed" to have demanded an E-Type the moment he saw one; by 2024 the line had become fact: "Frank Sinatra once said 'I want that car, and I want it now' upon first reveal of the car in 1961." No source outside Jaguar's own retelling was found for it.⁠18​8​19​20​21​10​22

Rows of E-Types parked on an apron at Brooklands, with Concorde and museum hangars behind.
An anniversary gathering: E-Types of all three series on the apron at Brooklands Museum, Surrey, on 25 June 2011.allen watkin from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  • Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
  1. The Museum of Modern Art (GitHub: MuseumofModernArt/collection), MoMA collection research dataset: Artworks.csv (E-Type Roadster, 113.1996), the collection record of the E-Type Roadster; the collection data: title, date, credit line, accession number, date acquired; the other cars acquired. Reference
  2. IMCDb.org (Controgest SRL), "Jaguar E-Type in movies and TV series", the E-Type's list of film and television appearances; the list of appearances. Database
  3. Christopher Mount, Refining the Sports Car: Jaguar's E-Type (exhibition brochure), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Exhibition 282, 1996, the exhibition brochure: dates and essay. Reference
  4. The Museum of Modern Art (GitHub: MuseumofModernArt/exhibitions), MoMA exhibition history dataset: MoMAExhibitions1929to1989.csv, the exhibitions of 1929–89. Reference
  5. Jaguar Cars Inc. (advertisement in Newsweek), "Jaguar Cars for 1967" (advertisement), Newsweek, vol. 69 (1967), the advertisement quoting the museum. Primary
  6. Jaguar Cars Inc. (advertisements in Time), Jaguar Cars Inc. advertisements in Time, 1967, Time, 1967, the quotation credited "Museum of Modern Art, New York". Primary
  7. Internet Archive, Internet Archive full-text search: "most beautiful car" with Ferrari and E-type (search record), Gino Rancati, Enzo Ferrari: The Man (1988), the passage on the E Type cabriolet. Unchecked
  8. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Celebrates 50 Years of Iconic E-type" (press release), 24 Jan 2011, "the most beautiful car in the world"; the 50th anniversary. Primary
  9. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar E-type Zero – 'The Most Beautiful Electric Car in the World'" (press release), 7 Sep 2017, the bullet points and the text: both wordings; the car: a 1968 roadster converted by Jaguar Land Rover Classic. Primary
  10. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Pays Homage to a Generation-Defining Classic at London Concours 2024, the Jaguar E-type" (press release), 5 Jun 2024, "the most beautiful car ever made"; 50 E-Types at the London Concours, 4–6 June 2024; Sinatra. Primary
  11. IMCDb.org (Controgest SRL), IMCDb film pages with E-types: Austin Powers (1997, 1999), Harold and Maude, Diabolik, The Italian Job, "E-Type Concept Zero", the pages for Diabolik, The Italian Job, Harold and Maude and the two Austin Powers films. Database
  12. Andy Lane, The Official World of Austin Powers, Universe, 2002, the Shaguar and its Union Jack paint. Reference
  13. Michael McCullers, Austin Powers, Berkley Boulevard Books, 2002, "my 1967 convertible Shaguar". Reference
  14. Jaguar Land Rover North America (newsroom blog), "E-Type Stars at Vegas Premiere of the New Major Motion Picture The Mechanic" (blog), 21 Feb 2011, the E-Type in The Mechanic. Primary
  15. Thom Leavy, "This car stole the show at the royal wedding", CBS News, 21 May 2018, the drive from the wedding. Reference
  16. Matteo Milani, "Jaguar E-type Zero: sfilata elettrica per Harry e Meghan al Royal Wedding", HDmotori.it, 21 May 2018, Windsor Castle to Frogmore House. Reference
  17. Josh Max, On Rowan Atkinson's Man vs Bee E-Type, Forbes Australia, 28 Oct 2025, Forbes Australia, 28 October 2025: Atkinson's words to The Daily Telegraph about the filming. Reference
  18. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar E-Type Receives Royal Mail Stamp of Approval as a True British Automotive Legend" (press release), 14 Aug 2013, the British Auto Legends stamps. Primary
  19. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "E-Type to New XJ: Fifty Years of Design Integrity" (press release), 20 Apr 2011, Sinatra's "reputed" words. Primary
  20. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Classic Reveals E-type 60 Collection: 60th Anniversary Tribute to the Iconic Sports Car" (press release), 12 Mar 2021, the E-Type 60 Collection. Primary
  21. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "New Jaguar F-TYPE Heritage 60 Edition Celebrates Diamond Anniversary of Legendary E-type" (press release), 9 Dec 2020, the F-Type Heritage 60 Edition. Primary
  22. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Classic E-type Commemorative: Jewel and Machine" (press release), 23 Oct 2024, the two Commemorative cars. Primary

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