E type vrs XKE why ..?

[pafagt]

Hello forum, perhaps this has been discussed before I just can't find much info. Why or when did e types come to be called an XKE in the United States? to me the car is an e type and that is the way it was conceived in the UK and how it is called in every manual and document I've read, but why was the car called an XKE ? was it because XK's (120, 140 and 150's) were very popular back then and it was just easy for american distributors to give it continuation?

Thanks !!
Pablo

[Heuer]

The American Distributor created the name for marketing purposes and have a lineage from the XK sports cars, seemingly oblivious to the racing success of the C-Type and D-Type. They went ahead and marketed the car as the XKE without bothering to ask Jaguar.

Sir William is said to have disliked the XKE name intensely and thought the American's were trying to steal his ideas and design. Rumour has it that he insisted on putting 'E-Type' on the boot lids of the 4.2 and subsequent cars as a final f*** you to the American executives.

[pafagt]

Thanks David, makes sense, was it still Hoffmann ?

[Heuer]

Yes.

[Tommd]

It seems to be quite common for manufacturers to use different names for the same car in different markets. I do not see this as unusual at all.
Tom

[pafagt]

The thing is that this is not what Jaguar wanted, but Hoffman was pretty powerful and influential at the time and seems like he pretty much did what he wanted. He wanted the e type to be related more to the XK’s as they were more popular (commercially) in the US and not many americans were that aware of the racing success of the D-type. Just my perception…

[PeterCrespin]

I used to follow the line of thought expressed here but it is incomplete at best.

Jaguar used the term XKE in North American printed materials more or less from the start and years before the boot badge.

The declared XK120,140,150 linkage which supposedly ignored the racing heritage is 180-degrees out. The official nomenclature for the race cars was XKC and XKD, so XKE was the direct lineage and most logical. Incidentally, it is also why some argue the Series 3 is not an XKE as it has no XK engine apart from a few prototypes.

Hoffman ran the East Coast distribution whereas Hornburg ran things West of the Mississippi. Lyons was judge, jury and executioner and in this period he answered to nobody. His prime goal was selling cars, so almost anything his biggest market wanted to help sales, could be arranged, and gladly. No management civil war needed.

Read ‘Jaguar in America’ (271 large pages) by John Dugdale).

[Heuer]

So why did Jaguar put the E-Type badge on what was the most recognisable car in the World despite producing 9,577 3.8 cars specifically for the USA? It would have caused confusion amongst customers in its biggest market.

[Gfhug]

On the 3.8 besides the horn push badge was there any other “E Type” shown? Not on the boot as that only had the word Jaguar.
Having not knowingly seen US brochures for the E Type, how was the car described on them?

I can see arguments for both descriptions, the C and D Types so often called just that in the UK, although officially XKC120C (and was it XK120D or XKD?). Must read Norman Dewis’ book again.

It’s interesting to note Dr Thomas Haddock’s book seems to refer throughout to the car being an E Type, yet it is an American book with liter instead of litre.

Geoff

[Heuer]

Model name only on the horn push. Jaguar planned to have both the 3.8 and 4.2 models available concurrently with the relevant capacity on the boot lid along with 'JAGUAR'. Sir William insisted on the model name being put in place which had the side effect of it being one of the very few cars in the world known by its model name before the manufacturer - E-Type Jaguar rather than the other way around.

[PeterCrespin]

So why did Jaguar put the E-Type badge on……It would have caused confusion amongst customers in its biggest market.

‘Why’ questions are always tricky, David, but I suspect Jaguar felt confident there’d be no problem for the same reason you’d still know it was Jill if she emerged from the jeweller’s wearing a new brooch :-)

I remember seeing early American launch brochures referring to the ‘S-Type’ (possibly Jaguar S) for the car that we all know as the XJ-S. Unfortunately, I’m away from my books from Christmas to Easter in Brisbane, so can’t check stuff.