[Video] The car that became the E-type | GRR
The story of the Jaguar E-type is a famous one and deservedly so. All the right elements were there; a great cast of characters; Sir William Lyons, Malcolm Sayer, Bill Heynes and Bob Berry. There was the dramatic dash to Geneva by Norman Dewis and then of course the dramatic twist when the normally disdainful Enzo Ferrari anointed it the ‘most beautiful car ever built’.
But what of before the E-type? We obviously know it built on the racing successes of the C-Type and D-Type but this was no pure racer. How did those Le Mans winners morph into the most famous car of its, arguably any, age? Well the missing link may well be E2A, so called because it was the second prototype for what became the E-type. Like its forebears, E2A was a racer and followed them to Le Sarthe, albeit unsuccessfully. Languishing for years at the Jaguar factory it came close to being scrapped but was saved, restored and now competes again at the Goodwood Revival and Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport. We went to take a look at the most famous car you might not have heard of.