JaguarE-Type

Notable Jaguar E-Types

The E-Types whose numbers matter: the prototypes, the three cars at the Geneva launch, the first racers, the Low Drag Coupé, the twelve Lightweights, the V12 racers and the last car of all.

A silver low-drag E-Type coupé with three headlamp openings and the registration 4868 WK on a display stand.
4868 WK (S850662), Peter Lindner's Lightweight, restored and shown at the AvD Oldtimer-Grand-Prix at the Nürburgring in August 2011.Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de

In the middle of March 1961 three E-Types were in Geneva: the coupé 885005 on Jaguar's stand, the coupé 9600 HP that Bob Berry had driven out for the press, and the roadster 77 RW, which Norman Dewis brought through the night when one demonstrator was not enough. On 12 June 1974, 13 years later, the last E-Type left the line, and Jaguar kept it.

Between them come the cars on this register: prototypes, launch cars, racers, the twelve Lightweights and the cars made long after. Most have a card below; seven have pages of their own, and the others are told on the page that holds their story.⁠1​2​3

Which was the first E-Type?

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The prototypes

E1A, built on chassis XK 101 in 1957, was Jaguar's experimental test car; it was broken up at the end of 1958 or early in 1959. The development cars followed; of the development cars of 1959–60, the coupé 885002, later 9600 HP, survives. E2A, the racing prototype of 1960, raced at Le Mans for Briggs Cunningham, and of the two experimental cars, E1A and E2A, it is the only one to survive.⁠4​5​9

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The launch cars, 1961

9600 HP, car 885002, was the press coupé at Geneva and The Autocar's test car. 77 RW, car 850003, was the second demonstrator and The Motor's test car, and is on loan to the Trust. 885005 was the display coupé, on the stand and at the press presentation; it survives with a private owner (Switzerland). The cars at the New York launch in April are on the 1961 page.⁠1​10​11​12​7

A dark green E-Type roadster with the registration 77 RW and its hood down on a white museum floor.
77 RW (850003), the roadster Norman Dewis drove to Geneva in March 1961, at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, in 2016.DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0

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The first racers, 1961–62

Jaguar set aside seven of the first cars for chosen racers in the 1961 season. ECD 400, car 850005, Equipe Endeavour's, won the first race an E-Type started, at Oulton Park in April. John Coombs's car, raced as BUY 1 and later registered 4 WPD, was lightened through 1962 and rebuilt in Lightweight form by 1963. Sir Gawaine Baillie's GB 8488, car 850008, was sold as a road car after its season and raced again in 2018.

At Le Mans in 1962 Cunningham's coupé, 860630, registered 1337 VC, was 4th with Roy Salvadori, and Peter Sargent's own car was 5th. Dick Protheroe raced the coupé 860004 as CUT 7 in 1962, the first of three cars to carry that number. Jack Lambert's early car was rebuilt by the factory to the competition specification on its steel shell.⁠13​14​15​16​17​18​19

A grey E-Type coupé with a light blue nose band, the number 14 and the registration CUT 7 on grass.
The coupé carrying CUT 7 that its photographer identifies as 860004, Dick Protheroe's first CUT 7 of 1962, at the London Concours. It has the standard roof: it is not the Low Drag Coupé.MrWalkr, CC BY-SA 4.0

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The Low Drag Coupé

One car, EC1001: Malcolm Sayer's low-drag coupé, built by the factory in 1962 and sold to Protheroe in 1963, who raced it as CUT 7, the third car to carry the number. Its first race in the published histories is Reims, on 30 June 1963, where Protheroe was 2nd overall and won the GT class.⁠18​20​21​22

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The twelve Lightweights

Jaguar built twelve Lightweights in 1963–64, of eighteen planned: open two-seaters with aluminium hardtops. By the register's count they are John Coombs's 1961 car, rebuilt as S850006, and eleven new cars, S850659 to S850669; S850670 does not exist. Jaguar said in 2014 that eleven survive. Among them:

  • 5113 WK, Kjell Qvale's car, won the GT 4-litre class at Sebring in March 1963, the Lightweights' first race, and was found in a Los Angeles garage in 1998.

  • 5114 WK, Cunningham's, was 9th at Le Mans in 1963.

  • 86 PJ, Tommy Atkins's, was 3rd in the 1963 Tourist Trophy with Salvadori.

  • 4868 WK, Peter Lindner's, was the only one the factory rebodied with a low-drag roof and tail. The car was badly damaged at Montlhéry in October 1964, in the accident in which Lindner died, and was restored and shown again in 2011.

  • 49 FXN, Lumsden and Sargent's, was given a low-drag coupé body of its own for 1964.

  • YVH 210, Peter Sutcliffe's, was 3rd in the Kyalami 9 Hours of 1964 and won the Goodwood Revival's TT Celebration in 2006 and 2007.

  • BEN 152, Bob Jane's, won the Australian GT Championship in 1963.

The first owners of the last two, 2 GXO and PS 1175, are not established. A factory "semi-lightweight", Sir Hugh Ropner's road car of 1964, is not one of the twelve.⁠3​21​23​19​24​25​26​27​28​29​30​31

A dark green low-drag E-Type coupé with white roundels and the registration 49 FXN on tarmac.
49 FXN (S850663), Peter Lumsden and Peter Sargent's Lightweight, given its low-drag coupé body in 1964, photographed in 2009. It is not the Low Drag Coupé.Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0

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The V12 racers

Group 44's V12 roadster won the American B Production title for Bob Tullius in 1975 and belongs to the Jaguar Heritage Trust. Huffaker Engineering's car, raced by Lee Mueller in the west, has no published chassis number, and no source read gives its later history. Both raced in the V12 programme of 1974–75.⁠32​33

A white and green E-Type V12 race car with side exhaust pipes passing a crowd.
Bob Tullius's name on its door: the Group 44 V12 at Goodwood's Festival of Speed, 2006.Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0

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The continuation Lightweights

In 2014 Jaguar announced six new Lightweights, to be built on the six chassis numbers left unused from the 1963 project, and showed a prototype, Car Zero, at Pebble Beach on 14 August. Built in 2014–15 by Jaguar Heritage, now Jaguar Classic, they are new cars, not restorations; which numbers they carry has not been published, though Jaguar has called one "chassis number 15".⁠3​34​35

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The last car, and the Trust's cars

The last E-Type, HDU 555N, car 1S 2872, a black V12 roadster, was built on 12 June 1974, the last of fifty Commemorative roadsters, and has belonged to the Trust since 1983. The Trust keeps other E-Types too, among them the 1963 coupé YKE 374A, which it has held since January 2003.⁠2​15​36

A black E-Type V12 roadster with chrome wire wheels and the registration HDU 555N on grass.
The last of the line: HDU 555N, built on 12 June 1974, shown at the London Concours in June 2021.MrWalkr, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Notable cars

  • Lightweight S850668 (2 GXO)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1961

    4 WPD (BUY 1), John Coombs's E-Type

    Survives

  • Built 1963

    49 FXN, Lumsden and Sargent's Lightweight (S850663)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    5113 WK, Qvale's Lightweight (S850660)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    5114 WK, Cunningham's Lightweight (S850664)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    5115 WK, Cunningham's Lightweight (S850659)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    5116 WK, Cunningham's Lightweight (S850665)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1961

    77 RW

    Survives

  • Built 1963

    86 PJ, Atkins's Lightweight (S850661)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    BEN 152, Bob Jane's Lightweight (S850667)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1957

    E1A

    Destroyed

  • Built 1960

    E2A

    Survives

  • Built 1962

    The Low Drag Coupé (CUT 7)

    Survives

  • Built 1974

    Huffaker E-Type V12

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Lightweight S850669 (PS 1175)

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1963

    YVH 210, Sutcliffe's Lightweight (S850666)

    Survives

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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
  1. Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "Swallow Sidecar Company Centenary 100 Facts Exhibition", 2022, fact 49. Primary
  2. Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-type Series 3 V12 OTS HDU 555N: The Last E-type Built". Primary
  3. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "The Lightweight E-type is Reborn" (press release), 14 May 2014, editors' notes. Primary
  4. François Prins, "The Story of the E1A: The Experimental Car That Preceded The E-Type", Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Reference
  5. François Prins, "Evolution of the E-Type", Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, The Next Prototypes. Reference
  6. Jaguar E-type Club, Jaguar E-type Club: home page and "About Us". Reference
  7. Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1961 Jaguar E-type 77 RW: The First E-type OTS". Primary
  8. racingsportscars.com, National Open Oulton Park [GT] 1961, results, results, 1st. Database
  9. François Prins and Tony Merrygold, "The Story of the E2A: E for Exciting Experiment", Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Reference
  10. Jaguar Clubs of North America, Series 1 E-Type Judge's Guide (draft), part 1: Intro–Exterior, Draft, version of 21 Jul 2026, Pre-production E-Types. Reference
  11. XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 885002 (9600 HP). Reference
  12. XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 850003 (77 RW), the Jaguar Drivers' Club report of December 2000: 885005. Reference
  13. Simon Arron, "Damon Hill drives the coolest of cats — his Dad's race-winning Jaguar E-type", Motor Sport, Aug 2021, p. 88. Reference
  14. Dickie Meaden, "Driving the original racing Jaguar E-type – Nights in shining armour", Motor Sport, Nov 2018, p. 58. Reference
  15. Motor Sport, "Jaguar E-type: the end of production and end of an era – but not of a legend", May 1975, p. 29, p. 29. Primary
  16. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1962, results, results, 4th and 5th. Database
  17. XKEdata (xke.collectordata.com), Car page 860630 (1337 VC). Reference
  18. Damien Smith, "Cut and pace", Motor Sport, Mar 2005, p. 86. Reference
  19. Gordon Cruickshank, "Jaguar's Lightweight E Types", Motor Sport, Sep 1984, p. 33, Lambert's car. Reference
  20. Matthew Franey, "Cd Players", Motor Sport, Oct 1998, p. 74. Reference
  21. collectordata.com (the XKEdata family of registers), Coventry Racers: Jaguar C-Type, D-Type, XKSS and Lightweight E-Type register, car page EC1001; car pages S850006, S850659–S850669. Reference
  22. racingsportscars.com, GP Reims 1963, results, results, 2nd. Database
  23. Shihanki Elpitiya and Tony Merrygold, "Peter Lindner: Racing Driver Who Died Driving His Own Lightweight E-type", Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Primary
  24. racingsportscars.com, Sebring 12 Hours 1963, results, results, 7th. Database
  25. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1963, results, results, 9th. Database
  26. racingsportscars.com, Tourist Trophy 1963 (Goodwood), results, results, 3rd. Database
  27. racingsportscars.com, Australian GT Championship 1963 (Calder), results, results, 1st. Database
  28. Stuart Bitmead, "Race car restoration: Jaguar E-type 'lightweight'", Motor Sport, Sep 2018, p. 160. Reference
  29. Simon Ostler, "Previous winners of the RAC TT Celebration", Goodwood Road & Racing (goodwood.com), 20 Sep 2026. Reference
  30. racingsportscars.com, Kyalami 9 Hours 1964, results, results, 3rd. Database
  31. Gordon Cruickshank, "Missing lightweight E-type unearthed", Motor Sport, Jul 1998, p. 6. Reference
  32. Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1974 Jaguar E-Type Group 44 Racing Car". Primary
  33. Andrew Frankel, "V12 Epoch", Motor Sport, Dec 2004, p. 70. Reference
  34. Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar media newsroom), "Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations Reveals 'New' Lightweight E-type" (press release), 12 Aug 2014. Primary
  35. Jaguar Land Rover North America (JLR media newsroom), "Jaguar Classic Announces XKSS Launch And Lightweight E-TYPE Race Plans" (press release), Coventry, 5 Jul 2016. Primary
  36. Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, "1963 Jaguar E-type Series 1 Coupé YKE 374A". Primary

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