Old Top Gear - Jaguar E-Type

[@rogerpritchard]

My father Dennis Pritchard bought a 1968 series 4.2cc coupe, opalescent blue. OBU 608F, How lucky was I to be taken to school in it as school boy!

[@joemorgan636]

How long ago was that was it a Series 1 My dad had 4.2 Roadster 67 with original factory hardtop

[@tedecker3792]

I had a 63 roadster during my last two years of college (76/77). Heaven to me would be an endless drive through an endless forest.

[@gf4353]

I remember buying my first E-Type, it was such an overwhelming experience. To be privileged to actually acquire, own, possess a real European masterpiece that I can sit in and drive and experience the feeling of freedom in an exotic piece of art. Was almost more than I could bare. I could not have been more thrilled. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. !!!!!!. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. !!!!!

[@bicyclist2]

I once rode in a BRG E-Type convertible as a teen in northern Michigan and I'll never forget it as long as I live. Its the absolute best car ever. It was a sensory overload. Pure passion, style and sound all rolled into one. Thanks.

[@EEnnisjr]

christdragon The XKE was a nice looking car, but the biggest piece of garbage in the world! The twelve was twice as bad!! I know, I have owned two of each! My Ferrari’s were much more reliable, and much faster!!

[@3ducs]

I bought a 1968 Series 1 1/2 in 1972, $2800, cheap money, even then. Wish I still had it!!

[@alanwatson7081]

G

[@rst214HDwatch]

Why did you sell it ?

[@terriharrison6534]

I bought a 3 year old 1965 roadster with 26,000 miles for $2500.00 US . It had a damaged bonnet that I replaced for $380.00 new from the dealer. ( unpainted). Had the entire car repainted (white) and added a Crome luggage rack on the trunk lid. Can’t imagine what it would be worth today in that condition. After a number of years, I switched over to Porsche (944, 928, & 911) but my love for the Jag has never wavered.

[@3ducs]

@@rst214HDwatch Went to the ex in the divorce.

[@videomaniac108]

As close as I came to having a Jag back then was the large-scale plastic model of the E-Type Jaguar that I built as a kid in the early 60s. Today, I own a Nissan 370Z sport coupe with a 6-speed manual gearbox. It's not in the same league as the Jag but it is a reasonably close facsimile to the real thing.

[@richardmurphy479]

The E-type is a classic unsurpassed beauty from the mid 60's. I can't afford one now, but I can still fantasize.

[@BuzzLOLOL]

Jeremy Clarkson's old Top Gear full review of Aston Martin DB5/Jaguar XK-E is TOTALLY HILARIOUS !!! 02:50 the highly desirable MGA's / XK-E's weren't to be sold to Brits, they were to go to USA to raise hard cash for WWII strapped England !!!

[@victoriaohlendorf7525]

Wow, can I have one to drive somewhere around immenstadt oberallgäu germany... VPO.. TY!

[@daveross7762]

As for the comment of the coupe being better looking I'm lucky enough to own a 66 roadster which in my humble opinion is far better looking than the coupe as the coupe's greenhouse is entirely too tall for the car and the rear end looks like a fully loaded babies diaper --- Both beautiful but the roadster has it ....hands (and top) down.

[@BuzzLOLOL]

Yep, only the roadster for me...

[@huudamu1884]

NICELY I MA FAN OF THIS TOO

[@johnadams9044]

The people who mindlessly profess their "love" for the E-Type are only moved by their eyes. They have no idea that the car was seriously unreliable and deeply problem plagued. Like headaches and problems? Then buy an E Type and suffer.

[@metalman4141]

Totally not true

[@victoriaohlendorf7525]

But I need a park place not that the neighborhood push me around, send me outside in this flat where I live... VPO.. TY!

[@stevepitts7998]

JC hasn't changed a bit

[@michaelmeliambro5117]

The 1963 Corvette Stingray did it better. Change my mind.

[@chrispritchard4676]

I must be out of step. I had a series one 3.8 Coupe and the quality was rubbish. By the early 70s the chrome was pitting and small rust holes appearing around the rear sills and arches. I was glad to sell it on for £795 at the time. Yes, it was beautiful but at £2200 new, one gets what one pays for (hence quality materials were not a priority). After that I had two more Jaguars and they were both very unreliable. Now, fifty years later, I have a Lexus LS made in Japan and, dare I say it, have the performance of the E Type, but have total reliability and quality. Sometimes, rose tinted spectacles distort our memories !

[@MrPabsUk]

Whats easily forgotten is how quickly cars did rust back then, rustproofing was generally ignored by every manufacturer, in fact the only 2 companies that seemed to make a concerted effort to rustproof their cars were Mercedes & Volvo, & even then, they still rusted! The only way you could stop/pause it was by paying third parties like Ziebart to rustproof them when new, or, as some of the more conscientious owners did, fill the sills & paint the chassis with used engine oil every year, after slapping a load of underseal on (which had limited effect, as rust generally worked its way from the inside out, thanks to completely unpainted box sections & cavities, rather than from the outside in). If you didn't, rotten sills/arches/door bottoms etc were the norm at 5 years old, sometimes less.

[@joemorgan636]

Different times mate £2200 in 1960s was serious money that’s a house

[@kavinskysmith4094]

Sound in NA, also the Jag he's driving, 848 Cry, its the italian Job Jaguar E type that was mach destroyed in that.

[@Rigel7WasAlreadyUsed]

Yeah, we watched this too.

[@Elijah-cy9do]

British masterpiece🇬🇧

[@Thereishope664]

They said it would snap knickers elastic as it drove past.

[@harryw9598]

dont get me wrong i love the e-type very much, but uncle steve's keep on running with a jag. well they ran but often they broke down. 💔

[@adam1othman]

Who the fuck bitched about copyright?

[@EEnnisjr]

That is a lie that the Jag was crashed in the Italian Job. I have seen the movie. It’s a Lamborghini Miura with Michael Caine. They must have edited out the Jaguar, and opted for the Miura, which was a massive improvement over the XKE.

[@b_mb4948]

*_From an old news article:_* "Little is known about the black fixed head coupe, the registration was 619 DXX, but the red 3.8L Roadster (848 CRY) is alive and kicking today. The early Roadster was originally the demonstrator for the Leicester distributors, Sturgess's - it was the 12th E-Type to be built. It was the first E-Type to be involved in motorsport and was raced with success during 1961 by Robin Sturgess with the registration 2 BBC. In 1962 Sturgess re-registered the car 848 CRY and it was sold. Then it ended up in the hands of model Richard Essame, who landed a part in The Italian Job, as 'Tony', one of the Cooper drivers. Richard drove the car to location in Italy and where the production team thought it would be ideal in the movie and purchased the car from him. It's unclear where the Jag was since the filming finished, but it was totally restored in the early nineties and has been featured in a variety of magazine articles and on BBC's Top Gear programme and is owned by internationally renowned Jaguar author, motoring historian and founder of The E-Type Club, Philip Porter."

[@Schlipperschlopper]

Sadly all combustion cars including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Now they want to slow down all the gas station pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime.

[@oibal60]

Looks like I'm moving then.

[@Frank-om4fc]

Personally I think it was the most overated car ever...as ugly as an old dog..sorry certainly not a cat it was named after...

[@bigmacdaddy1234]

Cars were so much better back then. Today we have plastic crap with no style and zero substance..

[@markr5132]

If the Brit management would have really been 1/2 as smart as you imply in this video.. You would have hired just a few engineers from Detroit. Take the time to look at a gas tank, sending unit, filter and mounting on a 1963-1982 Corvette-yes their are the same design just a slighty different. I have 40+ years of manufacturing experience and the Jag's equivalent parts materials manufacturing and assembly time is at the minimum five time that of the Corvettes. Before you say the Jag has a better more reliable design, my brother has had one of the largest Corvette parts businesses in the US and I can tell you the whole system is durable and reliable. Just saying, its a shame that British upper management back they was so arrogant and close minded to not be open to change because you had many of the best workers, craftsmen, engineers in the world! Once you give so much control to the government and Unions you are destined to low productivity, efficiency, commitee decision, conservative low risk choices. Just like in the US the our corrupt governments have screwed us.

[@MrPabsUk]

Jaguars are reliable as well, the problem over there is that American mechanics seem to be totally confused if a car doesn't have an all iron OHV V8 & isn't suspended on leaf springs. Trying to compare an E-Type to a C2 is like trying to compare a Chevy Spark to a Mach E. The level of engineering is totally different.. Not everyone want barn door engineering, & some people were willing to pay extra for the mechanical prowess & design elegance of the XKE over the simplistic Vette. There`s nothing wrong with barn door engineering, it has its plus points, like being able to be maintained by a farmer more used to a tractor, but the rest of the world technically surged past American car by quite a margin from the 50`s onwards, partly because Americans are very conservative, & as a result, manufacturers stagnated.Yes, there were management issues, but tell me how many western countries car industries haven't gone through periods of that? And look at the current vettes, totally emulating European engineering, & even the Mustang has left cart springs behind & adopted an IRS..Finally..

[@BuzzLOLOL]

@@MrPabsUk - Jaguar eventually used the 1950 Buick/then Olds/later Rover 215"/3.5L all aluminum V8's bore and stroke to finally make a powerful over square V12 that redlines at 6500 RPMs instead of 5000 RPMs of the under square Jaguar 6... BTW, Corvettes still use leaf springs and OHV rather than OHC engines... and at one third - one tenth the price, out perform European cars ...

[@MrPabsUk]

​@@BuzzLOLOL Nope.. Wrong.. Jaguar never used the Buick derived V8 or drew inspiration from one.. Rover did, Land Rover/Range Rover did, & a number of other British companies did, but Jaguar most certainly did not..Jaguar started work on the V12 in the 50`s, well before the merger with BMC & later BL, & before Rover adopted the Buick V8. And Jaguars V12 is nothing like any American V8, its an OHC for a start, at a time when all American V8`s were still OHV. It was totally designed in house, & definitely doesn't share anything with any of your old agricultural V8`s. I dont know where you`ve heard all this crap, but you really need to do some studying..

[@BuzzLOLOL]

@@MrPabsUk - Nope, all wrong... check the unusual bore x stroke of the Buick 215 and the Jaguar 5.3L... exactly the SAME !!!

[@MrPabsUk]

@@BuzzLOLOL Firstly, the 5.3 litre Jag V12 has a 90mm bore & a 70mm stroke, the Rover 3.5 litre of that era had an 89mm bore & a 72mm stroke, so not the exactly the same at all.. Secondly, have you got any idea how many cars have similar or even identical bore & strokes? And oversquare engines arent unusual either, especially back then.. I mean, are you saying you think they took an 8 cylinder Buick/Rover crank & added an extension to make it up to 12? You are really hilarious..