Be still, my heart: the Jaguar E-Type is coming back—sort of.

Photo: Jaguar Newsroom

By Bill Hayward

Three days ago, it was officially announced that the childhood dream car that I’ve never owned is making a comeback of sorts.

And I almost missed the press release in my inbox.

But I finally found it, and my heart almost skipped a beat when I read it: Jaguar Classic confirmed on Thursday that they will offer all-electric E-Types for sale, branded as E-Type Zero to emphasize the zero-emissions profile of the powertrain.

Note to Jaguar: If You Can Produce 25 New D-Types, Why Not A Modern E-Type?

Jaguar's production of a limited run of the legendary D-Type competition race car—an obvious precursor, last built in 1956, to the legendary E-Types built for consumers in the 1960s and early 1970s—begs one question: why not consider building a modernized version of the E-Type for general release on the consumer market? Surely there would be some level of demand for it.

Jaguar Classic restarted production earlier this year of the iconic Jaguar D-type race car in Coventry, 62 years after the last example was built. The first Jaguar D-type to be assembled by Jaguar Classic debuted at the Salon Retromobile show in Paris this year.

Jaguar, WT#???

Current Lineup Bewilders with Strong Performance, Head-Scratching Styling             


Clockwise from Top Left (all from 2017 model year): Jaguar XE,
Ford Fusion, Jaguar F-Type, and Ford Mustang. Notice the styling
similarities? Collage was assembled from photos from the Jaguar
and Ford media sites.

I have to admit some bias here, because I grew up around Jaguars from the 50s and 60s. My older brother owned several. The ones I remember best were an XK-140 coupe and a 340 sedan. No, I wasn't from a wealthy family. I'm the son of a teacher, and our standard of living was barely middle class.