Bespoke F-Type celebrates 60 years of the E-type | GRR
Just 60 special Jaguar F-Types are to be made available for the world as Jaguar’s official tribute model to mark the 60th anniversary of its famous sportscar forerunner. It was in Geneva in March 1961 that the E-type stole the show and set out on its road to automotive superstardom.
The diamond anniversary tribute is called the F-Type Heritage 60 Edition and has the commemorative plaque to prove it. The 60 cars will be hand-finished, by a new bespoke team within SVO special vehicle ops, and come with a range of 1960s-inspired colour and trim features – including, most appealingly, the flat Sherwood Green paint not offered by Jaguar since it was an option for the E-type more than half a century ago.
Other niceties meant to recall the Swinging Sixties are gloss black and chrome accents and forged 20-inch alloy wheels – a gloss-black, diamond-turned and spoke-effect attempt to capture some of the appeal of the wire wheels fitted to the first E-types. It works too. As the pictures show, in profile the cars look good together.
“We’ve worked closely with Jaguar Design to develop a theme that pays homage to the E-type in a contemporary way,” says SV Bespoke’s Mark Turner. “It’s testament to Jaguar’s sports car design lineage that the 1960s Sherwood Green colour looks as though it was designed for today’s F-Type.”
SV Bespoke has worked its leather magic inside with a two-tone hide combo of caraway and ebony that’s exclusive to this F-Type, along with lightweight seats and embossed logos. There’s a nod to the E-type too – no, not rows of Smiths dials and rocker switches (it’s all configurable driver interfaces and touch screens here) but an aluminium trim on the console. It’s meant to recall the E-type’s shiny rear-view mirror.
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It goes to show that nostalgia can only ever really be cosmetic on today’s hi-tech wonders, and that’s certainly true mechanically. Instead of its forebear’s 265PS straight-six and rear-wheel-drive think 575PS supercharged V8 and four-wheel-drive. The Heritage 60 Edition is as contemporary as petrol-powered Jags come, and with its 186mph top speed and 3.7 second 0-62mph time is the top cat of the F-Type range.
But like the E-type you can have your Sherwood Green commemorative F-Type in either fixed-head or convertible forms. Prices start at £122,500, a premium of around £25,000 on a stock F-Type R with the same drivetrain.
And if you want an E-type to go with it? Jaguar has thought of that too, and as we reported in the summer is offering six matched pairs of Mk1 3.8s. Each has been restored to as-new by Jaguar Classic to be a dead ringer the fixed-head and convertible that were driven from Coventry to Geneva for their motor show debut in 1961. They come a little more expensive though…