| The Sensational Jaguar XKE |
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March 10, 2010 The Sensational Jaguar XKEBy Harold Pace www.autoMedia.com  Jaguar XKE Series 1 in beautiful dark blue It's hard to imagine a car today having the kind of impact on modern culture that the XKE had in the early ‘60s. It was a wild & free time … miniskirts, French bikinis, Andy Warhol & the Beatles were just some of the symbols of an era when creativity, not productivity, were in the forefront of the news. The automotive industry was lagging behind the times: the 1961 Corvette, the Porsche 356 & the various MGs & Triumphs were holdovers from the ‘50s. Then, suddenly, there was the XKE! E-TicketJaguar sprang this tour de force on the public at the 1961 Geneva Auto Show, where it absolutely stole the show. The XKE borrowed stylistically & mechanically from the famous Le Mans-winning D-Type Jaguars, but to keep costs down many of its components were pulled from the Jag production parts bin. The body, tho, was like nothing anyone had ever seen. Smooth & balanced, the Jaguar E-Type (known in the U.S. as the XKE) swept back from covered headlights to a long hood, ending w/a gently rounded tail. There were 2 models, a coupe that was perhaps more stylish & a sporty roadster.The engine was a 3.8L DOHC I6 inherited from the previous Jag sports car, the XK-150S. It used triple SU carbs & produced 265 hp. The chassis was all new & based on race car practice, w/a monocoque center section & a front subframe to mount the engine. Brakes were disc all around (mounted inboard at the rear) & wire wheels were retained by 2-eared knock-offs. It made everything else available for the road (including the Ferrari 250 GT & the Maserati 3500GT) look positively ancient. Not only that, but w/a top speed of 150 mph the 1961 XKE would outrun any production car in the world! The biggest shock was the price: the XKE retailed for only $5,595, only slightly more than a Corvette & less than half the price of a street Ferrari. Imagine if the latest Lamborghini today was priced at $35,000—that's the reaction most people had when the XKE exploded on the scene. Every car magazine in the world showcased the new model on their covers & the writers ran out of superlatives to describe it. Sales SuccessAnd of course every celebrity had to get one. Jack Paar took delivery of his on the set of The Tonight Show. Rock stars & celebrities wheeled them around fashionable eateries & clubs, & they became a familiar prop in movies when a stunning entrance was required.The XKE was also a sales success, w/the majority of the cars being shipped to the U.S. (helping to tip the trade balance back to level). For his considerable success in selling cars in America, Jaguar founder William Lyons was later knighted. Once the Jags started getting into the hands of customers some flaws were discovered. The 4-spd transmission did not have a synchronized 1st gear, & was notchy to shift into the other gears as well. The brakes were frequently spongy, a result of using a poor power steering booster. And the electrical system was prone to failure, particularly as the cars aged. The myriad small problems were exacerbated by an insufficient # of dealers qualified to work on the XKE. The Series 1 XKE was built from 1961 to 1964, when an improved Series 1A (unofficially known as the Series 1-1/2) was introduced. These had 4.2L engines w/the same hp as the 3.8, but w/more torque. A fully-synchronized 4-spd had been introduced shortly before the changeover. The brakes were improved as was the interior, w/more legroom for tall drivers. The 3.8L cars were considered to be more challenging to drive, while the 4.2L versions were more refined. In 1966 Jaguar added a 2+2 version, w/an extended wheelbase & a less graceful roofline. XKEs were raced all over the globe, where they proved to be quick but generally outclassed by the Ferrari 250 GTO & the Shelby Cobra. DomesticationA total of 38,410 Series 1 XKEs were built thru 1967, when Jaguar was forced (kicking & screaming) to adapt the car to more stringent American crash & emission standards. The graceful covered headlights were opened up & the headlights slid forward in the openings. The knock-off spinners had to go, & the taillights were chopped off & stuck under the rear bumper.Under the hood the news was even worse, w/a 240 hp engine wheezing thru only 2 Stromberg carbs. Top speed dropped like a rock. The Series II was still popular, w/18,820 sold thru 1970, but the XKE now had serious rivals from the improved Corvette, Ferrari GTB & Porsche 911. Jaguar needed to keep the XKE in production while they developed new models, so they launched the Series 3 version in 1971. The XKE I6 was losing the hp race, so Jaguar dropped a new V12 engine into the old warrior. Only 2 versions were offered, a 2+2 coupe & a roadster, all built on the longer 2+2 chassis. The 5.3L V12 produced around 250 hp, but the weight had increased to the point that the new car was slower than a good Series 1. Bigger ventilated brakes were added, but the styling was compromised by tasteless steel wheels (wires were optional) & a larger grill (for improved cooling). Jaguar bankrolled an impressive American racing effort, led by Group 44 & Huffaker Engineering, who rolled back the Corvettes w/their 2 mighty V12 XKEs, but it was too late. The XKE was now truly outdated in performance & styling. Only 15,290 were sold from 1971 to 1975 when the XKE was at last laid to rest. Collector CatToday the XKE is one of the most sought-after collector cars in the world. Even after all this time, the Series 1 XKE is still ranked by many stylists as the most beautiful production car ever built. Clean Series 1 XKEs sell for more than 10 times their original selling price. Series 2 & all 2+2 models lag way behind in value, making them the best bargains. The V12 roadsters also have some collector cache, but restoration & maintenance costs are high. Even tho the cost of XKE ownership has gone up over the years, they are still a bargain compared to collector Ferraris & Porsche Carreras. Some things never change.Jaguar XKE History by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide The Jaguar XKE leaped onto the world's sports-car stage in March 1961. To anyone for whom the automobile is more about romance than utility, the Jaguar XKE ranks among the most important cars ever created. And not only for its virtues as a vehicle.  Like the Jaguar XK 120 of 13 years earlier, the Jaguar XKE was a masterwork, but one w/real racing roots. The Jaguar XKE was something more -- much more. There are enthusiasts who hold that racing is the highest of the automotive arts, & thus a road going automobile must be derived from racing experience. For them, a sports car based on a competition car is the best car. Such disciples perceive a natural link between the demands of the speedway & the pleasures of the open highway, & believe fervently that "racing improves the breed." The E-Type validated their theology. Here was a sports car that was not only exquisitely pleasing to look at & exciting to drive in every way, but one sired directly by a racing car. And not just any racing car, but the Jaguar D-Type, which had won the world's most prestigious sports-car race (Le Mans) 3 years running, in 1955, 1956 & 1957. Tho the XKE did not appear until 1961, it was quite clearly the D's lineal descendant, an honest & genuine attempt to adapt the Le Mans car's performance technology to everyday use -- to tame the racer for the road. Jaguar did literally that as a 1st step. Late in 1956, the company began converting the actual customer-version D-Type racer into a highway-capable sports car. Labeled XK-SS, it was convincing proof that there was more to the job of taming wild beasts than draping them in harness. The XK-SS was not exactly a failure as a sports car, but it was one of those unfortunate ones whose failings seem to outnumber their finer points. A "yes, but," sort of car. To begin with, the project was a ploy, & everybody knew it. By the time the XK-SS appeared, the D-Type had completed its 3rd season & the Jaguar factory had w/drawn from racing. It's hard to see it from the vantage point of today, when all such cars are so immensely valuable, but at the time, the D-Type was an aging athlete. It still had some good runs left in it-including another Le Mans victory -- & was more widely honored than ever, but retirement was looming. Faster racers were springing up all over. In a frank attempt to wring some added value from an obsolescent design, Jaguar hit on the idea of fitting some "production" D-Types w/full road equipment. That would suit eligibility rules for the C/Production racing class of the SCCA, but meant building at least 100 examples. Jaguar might have a hard time placing that many w/true racers. Still, perhaps some customers in the U.S. & elsewhere might be attracted by the prospect of owning a true super-sports street car. Worth trying, anyway. Jaguar E1A XKE PrototypeWhether the ‘E’ simply stood for "experimental" or had already been chosen for a new production model is not clear. The meaning of the’1’ is clear, of course. The ‘A’ signified "aluminum," or perhaps "alloy," the material of which both body & chassis were made. That implies Jaguar was already envisioning a later version of steel, which was more suitable for volume production. Outwardly, the E1A prototype bore a strong resemblance both to the D-Type/XK-SS & to the clay-model roadster that Sayer had carved back in 1954. Structurally, it was very much a D-Type derivation, w/a similar ovoid-section central monocoque tub & space-frame front structure. As on the earliest D-Types, tub & tubing were welded together, w/the front frame again being light alloy. But there were 2 departures from D-Type convention. Instead of a 3.4/3.8 engine, E1A carried the short-stroke XK six of Jaguar's then-new 2.4L compact sedan. This was because the prototype was physically small, being shorter, narrower, lower, & probably also lighter than the race cars that came before & the road model that was to come. Also, E1A had an experimental IRS instead of the D's live rear axle. It's worth remembering that Jaguar engineers had been working w/independent suspension since before WW II, beginning w/William Heynes' early investigations. During the war years, the company had built 2 different prototypes for a lightweight military vehicle, both w/independent suspension of all 4 wheels. The XK 120 & Mark V sedan emerged in 1948 as the 1st production Jaguars w/separately sprung front wheels. Later, during the D-Type program, some testing had been done w/a de Dion rear end, which has some of the advantages of full independence. So the thought had long been in mind to bring Jaguar's road cars, both sports models & sedans, into the modern all-independent world. Late, 1957 was the time, & E1A was the development vehicle. It was running by early 1958. And run it did, logging many thousands of hard miles on test tracks, race tracks, even public highways. In fact, on one extraordinary occasion, Sir William Lyons handed the keys of the top-secret prototype over to a member of the automotive press -- the editor of Motor, no less -- who was to take the little light-green roadster along some favored back-country roads in Wales & report back. He returned w/words like "astonishing," "sensational," & "world-beater." The scribe kept faith w/Lyons & kept quiet about the car in public, but sent a "secret & confidential" memorandum to his boss in May 1958. Published many years later by Paul Skilleter in Jaguar Sports Cars, the note revealed this editor's understanding that the production sports car to come would be a 3.0L w/an amazing output of 286 hp & a projected top speed "not very far short of 150 mph, which is going to make us think." Jaguar was thinking of making 100 per week, he added, & said that the new model, which people around the factory were already referring to as "the XKE;" was to go on sale in the autumn of 1958. Jaguar E2A XKE Prototype The final step from the XK-SS to the production XKE was the Jaguar E2A, shown here being readied for test runs at Le Mans in 1960. Actually, E2A was conceived more as a racer than road car. Many in the company still hoped Jaguar would return to formal competition, & this other "XKE" was really a follow-on to the D-Type. And after some years of clandestine development, the E2A finally did get to race, being taken to Le Mans in the spring of 1960 as an official entry. In fact, it was an official entry of the Briggs Cunningham team along w/a trio of Chevrolet Corvettes (one of which would finish 8th OA & 1st in the GT class). Word was given out that this spectacular new Jaguar had been "specially commissioned" by the marque's American stalwart, but the truth was the aging hack had already been pushed to one side when Cunningham was asked to take it racing. For a pre-race test session at Le Mans in April, it ran sans paint, its bare aluminum bodywork bearing only a British registration #. By race week, tho, it was in American racing livery of white w/blue stripes. But nobody could have doubted its real origin & original intent. Made mostly of aluminum like the D-Type, the E2A "XKE" ran at Le Mans w/a special aluminum-block XK engine featuring dry-sump oiling & FI. Nearly square bore & stroke dimensions of 85x88 mm meant displacement of 2,997cc, just 3cc below the contemporary 3.0L limit in the prototype class where the E2A qualified. With big valves, hot cams & a high 10.0:1 CR, hp was a tingling 293 at a whizzing 6,750 rpm. Indicating the peaky nature of this engine's power delivery was the high 6,000-rpm speed for peak torque, which was 230 lb/ft. This "XKE" proved quite fast in test sessions & in the race itself. Driven by American aces Walt Hansgen & Dan Gurney, it even set the best practice time. At the end of the 1st 8.36-mile lap, the E2A came by the pits in 3rd place behind a Maserati & a Ferrari, & well ahead of the other Jaguar entered, a D-Type, that grand old model having its last Le Mans hurrah. Then a broken fuel line set up a series of long pit stops to correct engine troubles. E2A made it past the 9th hour, but eventually quit. Autosport thought the Jaguar had been strong enough to win outright, & expressed regret that there hadn't been a team of 3. Cunningham then took the car back to the States, where he raced it several times w/a normal 3.8L, Weber-carbureted engine crammed under a "power bulge" in the hood. In this form, Hansgen won w/it at Bridgehampton (Long Island, NY) beating a Jaguar-powered Lister. But the mid-engine revolution was at hand. At least the E2A would find safe haven in the hands of a collector. The E1A? Unsentimentally, Jaguar cut it up as scrap -- tho perhaps only because the company had long since turned its full attention to preparing a road going XKE for production. Jaguar XKE Chassis & SuspensionNo longer a very small, very light sports car, it had grown to the wheelbase of the E2A (96”) & track dimensions at both ends as wide as the D-Type's front (50”). Chassis & body would be made of steel rather than light alloys, & tho a lift-up hood/front-fenders assembly would be retained, it would reveal a normal iron-block 3.8 w/a standard deep sump.  The Jaguar XKE's elongated purity of line owed much to the inspired hand of born-stylist William Lyons. Such familiarity only highlighted what would be a big attraction of the forthcoming XKE: Jaguar's latest IRS. This employed the usual U-jointed half shafts to take power from a chassis-mounted differential out to the wheels, but also used them as upper control links. This efficient, 2-jobs-in-one idea was not new, having already been used by Lotus on some of its racing cars as well as on its road going Elite. In America, Zora Arkus-Duntov had been using such a design experimentally since the late ‘50s & would adapt it for the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. Under the halfshaft was another control arm forming the lower element of a wheel-locating parallelogram. In the E2A, this had been a wide-based transverse "wishbone" or A-arm, but in the production XKE it took the form of a lateral tube w/a forged yoke on each end. Its job was to locate the wheel in both camber & toe. A 3rd control link ran from this tube forward to the bottom of the chassis to resist braking & accelerating forces. "Ears" on each tube supported a pair of vertically sited coil-spring/tubular-shock units per side. Having pairs precluded twisting forces on the tubes & allowed the spring/shock units to be small enough to fit beneath the rear floor area w/out undue space intrusion. That was important, because this same IRS was also going to be used in Jaguar sedans. The entire suspension package was carried on a steel substructure, which itself was rubber-mounted to the main monocoque to keep noise & road shock out of the cabin. Naturally, all 4 brakes would be discs, but the rears would be mounted inboard, next to the differential. Some of the time between 1958 prototype & 1961 production car had been spent making sure that heat from the rear brakes wouldn't soak into the differential. Jaguar XKE Engine The Jaguar XKE's classic 3.8L DOHC I6 made 265 hp @ 5500 rpm. A 4-spd M/T would be the only available transmission. No OD, & no A/T. This wasn't for the sake of simplicity, tho: There was simply insufficient room for those options in this compact, tightly packaged sports car. However, an LSD would be standard. With all its civilizing changes, the old XK roadster had become a contradiction in terms as a 150, & was not selling well anyway, so XKE body styles would be limited to the familiar pair of coupe & convertible. The latter was occasionally called Open 2-Seater, but in neither model was any attempt made to cram extra seating in the back, ‘+2’ or otherwise. For the 1st time, Jaguar offered the drophead w/a detachable hard top, an idea doubtless borrowed from America & here also rendered in fiberglass. Perhaps not surprisingly, the new production sports car emerged looking much like the E2A. But where the latter had seemed a bit stubby, perhaps even dowdy to eyes long used to feasting on the D-Type, the road going Jaguar XKE was so lovely as to make the heart ache. The original lines may have come from Malcolm Sayer's wind tunnel, but in the grace, the balanced proportions, the subtle electric excitement, one surely saw the hand of William Lyons. For its formal introduction to the world, the XKE was taken to the international arena of Switzerland & the Geneva auto show of March 1961. It was fully the sensation the XK 120 had been in London over a dozen years before. But even more so. Sired directly from the D-Type racing car, the speedy -- & lovely -- XKE instantly sparked a sensation, & yet another sports-car revolution for Jaguar. |
