The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1975. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the model as an icon of the motoring world. The E-Type's 150 mph (241 km/h) top speed, sub-7-second 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration, monocoque construction, disc brakes, rack-and-pinion steering, and independent front and rear suspension distinguished the car and spurred industry-wide changes. The E-Type was based on Jaguar's D-Type racing car, which had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three consecutive years beginning 1955, and employed what was, for the early 1960s, a novel racing design principle, with a front subframe carrying the engine, front suspension and front bodywork bolted directly to the body tub. No ladder frame chassis, as was common at the time, was needed and as such the first cars weighed only 1315kg (2900lb). On its release in March 1961] Enzo Ferrari called it "the most beautiful car ever made". In 2004, Sports Car International magazine placed the E-Type at number one on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s. In March 2008, the Jaguar E-Type ranked first in The Daily Telegraph online list of the worlds’ "100 most beautiful cars" of all time. Outside automotive circles, the E-type received prominent placement in Diabolic comic series, Austin Powers films and the television series Mad Men.
The E-Type was initially designed and shown to the public as a rear-wheel drive grand tourer in two-seater coupé form (FHC or Fixed Head Coupé) and as a two- seater convertible "roadster" (OTS or Open Two Seater). A "2+2" four-seater version of the coupé, with a lengthened wheelbase, was released several years later.
Later model updates of the E-Type were officially designated "Series 2" and "Series 3", and over time the earlier cars have come to be referred to as "Series 1." As with other partly hand made cars of the time, changes were incremental and ongoing, which has led to confusion over exactly what a Series 1 car is. This is of more than academic interest, as Series 1 E-Types—and particularly Series 1 Roadsters often have values in excess of Series 2 and 3 models. The final 50 Right Hand Drive Roadsters were built as a final edition to formally mark the end of the E-Type production. These were known as the E-Type Commemorative each was intended to be finished identically in Black paint and Cinnamon upholstery but one Green car especially painted for a long-standing Jaguar collector. There was a choice of manual or automatic, 19 automatic and the remainder manual. The first of the 50 Commemoratives was built on the 15th May 1974 and E-Type production officially closed with the last car one month later on 12th June. A bronze plaque adorns each example, usually on the dashboard and is inscribed with the individual chassis number and William Lyon’s signature. This incredibly rare car has had only one owner since it was two months old, and has covered a genuine 18,000 miles from new. Driving superbly having had a recent engine rebuild following a period in storage. Fully restored in 2015 to the highest possible standard having had a full bare metal rotisserie respray, new interior and full re-chroming of all brightwork (at a cost of £132,000). This is a matching numbers car, complete with original manuals, tool roll and jack and the all- important commemorative plaque on the glove-box cover. The chassis number sequence commenced at “2822”, making Mr Noble’s the 4th off of the production line. These cars are extremely rare with a total production of 50 units only.