JaguarE-Type

Jaguar E-Type Racing in Europe

The E-Type in European racing, 1961–64: the Nürburgring 1000 km, Spa, Reims and Montlhéry, Peter Lindner's German season, and the Low Drag Coupé's class wins.

About the pictureThe Reims-Gueux grandstands and pits in 2012, with no car: the place, not a race

Old grandstands and pit buildings beside a road beyond a stubble field.
Stand-in The grandstands and pits of the Reims-Gueux circuit in 2012, 40 years after it closed. Dick Protheroe's Low Drag Coupé was 2nd overall here in 1963. No car is shown.G.Garitan, CC BY-SA 3.0

At the start of the Nürburgring 1000 km on 19 May 1963, Peter Lindner, Jaguar's importer in Germany, took his new Lightweight into the lead. Motor Sport reported that he "not only led away from the start but stayed in front of Surtees and Scarfiotti with the works Ferraris for a whole lap, thanks to his knowledge of the Nurburgring".

The E-Type's European racing outside Le Mans was done by privateers, as it was everywhere: at the Nürburgring and Spa, at Reims and Montlhéry, in the Tour de France Automobile, and in Lindner's German GT races. It ended, at the front, in October 1964. Le Mans has its own page.⁠1​2​3​4

Race by race

The first European result came at Spa on 14 May 1961, where Mike Parkes was 2nd in Equipe Endeavour's ECD 400 behind Willy Mairesse's Ferrari 250 GT SWB. In the Nürburgring 1000 km of 1962 an E-Type driven by Werner and Olson was 15th, and Lumsden and Sargent's retired with broken suspension. E-Types started the Tour de France Automobile in 1962 and 1963 and retired both times, while Jaguar's Mk II saloons (sedans) won the touring category.

At the Nürburgring in 1963, after Lindner's lap, he and Peter Nöcker fought the leading Ferrari GTO for the GT lead until they retired. Lumsden and Sargent's Lightweight, delivered on the Monday before the race, was 4th overall until Lumsden crashed at the Flugplatz; Motor Sport reported that he "was comparatively unhurt but the Jaguar was a total wreck". The class for the largest GT cars, which racingsportscars labels GT+3.0, was won by a standard E-Type, driven by Therstappen and Ruthardt, 16th overall.

This left the class to some very slowly-driven standard E-types so that it would appear that the E-type is a good touring car that is all right as long as it is not raced.

Motor Sport, June 1963

At the Grand Prix de Reims on 30 June 1963, Dick Protheroe was 2nd overall and first in the GT+3.0 class in the factory's Low Drag Coupé, on its debut by Motor Sport's account of 2005.

In 1964 the Cobra and the GTO 64 had the measure of the Lightweights. At Spa in May, GTO 64s took the first three places and Peter Sutcliffe was 10th; he won the Prix de Paris at Montlhéry six days later. At the Nürburgring on 31 May, Nöcker hit Bob Bondurant's Cobra at the start, Lindner's car had gearbox (transmission) trouble, Sutcliffe was pushed off by a Cobra, and Protheroe crashed in practice; the best E-Type was Banks and McNally's near-standard coupé, 25th and 2nd in its class. Motor Sport added that "the Lumsden/Sargent car was not handling well due to some suspension modifications not working out as planned".

The Low Drag Coupé took the class twice more. In the Reims 12 Hours on 5 July 1964, Protheroe and Coundley were 8th overall and first in the GT+3.0 class, with Sutcliffe and Bradley 14th. In the Paris 1000 km at Montlhéry on 11 October they were 7th, and won the class again.

In 1965 E-Types appear in Europe mostly in German national GT races, Swiss hill climbs and at Monza. One late entry stands out: in the Spa 1000 km of 1966 Harper and Merrick were 16th in Jack Lambert's car, which the factory had rebuilt to competition specification in 1962–63 on its steel shell.⁠5​6​7​8​1​2​9​10​11​12​4​13​14​15​16​17​18

A black-and-white photograph of a Lightweight E-Type with a hardtop and the number 67 racing past trees, a blurred branch in the foreground.
Plate I Peter Lindner and Peter Nöcker's Lightweight, No. 67, in its 1963 open body with a hardtop, in the Nürburgring 1000 km on 19 May 1963.Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Peter Lindner's German season

Lindner had been Jaguar's importer in Germany since 1957, and his Lightweight, S850662, was registered 4868 WK by Jaguar in May 1963. He raced it with Nöcker. After the Nürburgring they won GT races at the Avus on 30 June 1963, the Norisring on 21 July, and on 6 October the Avus again and the Preis von Tirol at Innsbruck.

For 1964 the factory rebuilt the car with a low-drag roof and tail, the only Lightweight it rebodied this way, Motor Sport wrote in 2011. It was 6th at the Le Mans test day in April and retired from the race, won at the Norisring again in July, and did not start the Tourist Trophy. Motor Sport called it, at the Nürburgring in May, "the silver E-type Jaguar".

Peter Lindner was killed at the Paris 1000 km at Montlhéry in October 1964, in an accident that also killed Franco Patria and three marshals.⁠3​19​4​20​21​22​13​17

A black-and-white photograph of a silver low-drag E-Type coupé numbered 88 at a pit stop, surrounded by mechanics, with a crowded grandstand behind.
Plate II A pit stop for the Lindner and Nöcker Lightweight, No. 88, in its 1964 low-drag body, in the Nürburgring 1000 km on 31 May 1964; the photographer names Peter Lindner standing behind the car and Peter Nöcker in a helmet.Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Beyond Europe

Two Lightweights won far from home. Sutcliffe took his car, YVH 210, to South Africa for the Kyalami 9 Hours on 31 October 1964 and was 3rd overall, with Stoop, first among the GT cars, behind a Ferrari 250 LM and a GTO. In Australia Bob Jane won the Australian GT Championship at Calder on 8 December 1963 in his Lightweight, with Bill Jane's E-Type 3rd. In Macau, E-Types were 2nd in the Macau Grand Prix in 1961, 1963 and 1965.⁠23​24​4

Rivals in Europe

The Ferrari 250 GT SWB beat the E-Type at Spa in 1961 and in the Tour de France of 1962, and a 250 GTO was the first GT car home at the Nürburgring in 1963, a GTO won the Tour de France of 1963, and GTO 64s took the first three places at Spa in 1964 and the first GT place at Reims. From 1964 the Cobra was there too: at the Nürburgring that year two of them figure in the E-Types' troubles.

The E-Type's European record is a short one, mostly of class wins. The car that led that first lap at the Nürburgring in 1963 was restored, in its 1964 low-drag form, and shown again in 2011.⁠5​2​12​15​7​8​13​20

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. Denis Jenkinson, "A.D.A.C. 1000 Kilometres, Nurburgring" ("A Race of Incidents"), Motor Sport, Jun 1963, p. 14, para. 5; paras 5, 9, 13. Primary
  2. racingsportscars.com, Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres 1963, results, results; results; GT+3.0; results, GT+3.0. Database
  3. Shihanki Elpitiya and Tony Merrygold, "Peter Lindner: Racing Driver Who Died Driving His Own Lightweight E-type", Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Primary
  4. racingsportscars.com, "Jaguar E-Type – All Results", the European rows, 1961–66; 23 May 1964, Prix de Paris; 19 July 1964, Zolder; 22 May 1966, Spa; 21 July and 6 October 1963, Norisring, Avus and Innsbruck; 5 July 1964, Norisring; Macau Grand Prix, 1961, 1963 and 1965. Database
  5. racingsportscars.com, GP Spa [GT+2.0] 1961, results, results, 2nd; results, 1st. Database
  6. racingsportscars.com, Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres 1962, results, results, 15th; retirements. Database
  7. racingsportscars.com, Tour de France 1962, results, retirements; the touring category; results, 1st. Database
  8. racingsportscars.com, Tour de France 1963, results, retirements; the touring category; results, 1st. Database
  9. racingsportscars.com, GP Reims 1963, results, results, 2nd; GT+3.0. Database
  10. Damien Smith, "Cut and pace", Motor Sport, Mar 2005, p. 86, the Low Drag Coupé's debut at Reims. Reference
  11. Motor Sport, "Matters of moment, April 1963", Apr 1963, p. 11, paras 14–15. Primary
  12. racingsportscars.com, 500 km Spa 1964, results, results; results, 1st–3rd. Database
  13. Denis Jenkinson, "A.D.A.C. 1000 Kilometers, Nurburgring" ("Ferrari Win but Lola-Ford Fast"), Motor Sport, Jul 1964, p. 51, paras 4–18; "the silver E-type Jaguar"; the Cobras. Primary
  14. racingsportscars.com, Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres 1964, results, results and retirements. Database
  15. racingsportscars.com, Reims 12 Hours 1964, results, results, 8th and 14th; GT+3.0; results, GT. Database
  16. Denis Jenkinson, "The 12 Hours of Reims" ("A Race to the Finish"), Motor Sport, Aug 1964, p. 53. Primary
  17. racingsportscars.com, Paris 1000 km 1964 (Montlhéry), results, results, 7th; GT+3.0; retirements. Database
  18. Gordon Cruickshank, "Jaguar's Lightweight E Types", Motor Sport, Sep 1984, p. 33, Lambert's car. Reference
  19. racingsportscars.com, DARM GT Avus 1963, results, results, 1st. Database
  20. Motor Sport, "Famous E-type to star at show", Aug 2011, p. 20. Reference
  21. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans Test 1964, test results, 6th. Database
  22. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1964, results, retirements, No. 16. Database
  23. racingsportscars.com, Kyalami 9 Hours 1964, results, results, 1st–3rd. Database
  24. racingsportscars.com, Australian GT Championship 1963 (Calder), results, results, 1st–3rd. Database