MODEL PROFILE
When production of the E-Type came to an end in 1974, Jaguar marked the occasion by producing 50 examples of a special model. We revisit the ‘Commemorative’ edition
THERE CANNOT be any doubtover the impact the E-Type had on Jaguar’s fortunes throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Although the 120mph XK120 from 1948 together with the company’s five victories of the Le Mans 24 Hours during the Fifties helped put the company on the map, the E-Type with its amazing looks and race-bred performance put it into another league altogether. the car a very different beast from the straight six-powered originals, the smooth and refined engine transformed the E-Type into a genuine rival to the similarly powered Italian thoroughbreds.
All of this means when Jaguar planned to end E-Type production in mid 1974 it was a significant moment in its history. Just as it’s doing today with the F-Type 75, it marked the occasion with a special model. The final 50 open two-seaters in right-hand drive form would have an identical specification cinnamon interior trim. Importantly, on the far left side of the dashboard was a small commemorative brass plaque that read: This is one of a special series of fifty right hand drive cars built to identify the conclusion of manufacture of the Jaguar “E” Type Sports car. It then finished with the car’s chassis number plus a facsimile of Sir William Lyons’ signature.
The series started in May 1974 with chassis 1S2823 and finished on 12 June the same year with 1S2872 which was retained by the company and still forms part of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Of the 50 produced, 19 had a four-speed manual gearbox and the rest the automatic transmission.
Not all were the same though; the second from last example was ordered in British Racing Green by a prolific Jaguar collector and Lyons himself gave permission for it to be different from the rest.
Yet with the E-Type considered by many at the time to be old fashioned, especially compared to the larger, grander, and more luxurious XJ-S that would arrive during the summer of 1975, many of these final 50 E-Types – the model now collectively known as the Commemorative model – originally found it difficult to find homes.
“I well remember seeing one sitting in the Broad Street, Birmingham premises of P.J. Evans for many months before finally being sold,” wrote Philip Porter in his 1989 book, Jaguar E-Type The Definitive History. And during a 2015 interview about the XJ-S, former Jaguar development driver, Ed Abbott, told me he had to change the spark plugs of several unsold E-Types that were stored at Coventry a
