The 'E' Type Forum

THE LIGHTWEIGHT E-TYPE IS REBORN


Jaguar is to build six perfect reproductions of the original, race-bred Lightweight E-type that was created in 1963.

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Saving my money for when they build XKSS.....

Oh Gawd, what next from " Jaguar" ?

On second thoughts, perhaps they could do us all a favour and re-introduce the Mark IX

so what engine wil they put in it? A rebuilt old XK? Anyone know the intention?

The intention is to start a Jaguar Classic Heritage centre on the 17 acres of land Jaguar retain at Brown's Lane. They intend to offer restoration services (and maybe Jaguar branded parts) much as Porsche, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz already do. The six lightweights are being used to showcase their expertise but they have not ruled out making other variants to order. The cars will cost in excess of ?1,000,000 each and will only be sold to owners who will use them on the road and track - Arab princes need not apply! Owners can specify their cars specification (e.g bonnet or internal locks) as long as it strictly conforms to what was available in 1963. I guess the engine blocks and heads will be specifically cast and numbered (holds out the prospect of being able to buy a brand new XK engine maybe). The project has FIA approval so the cars can race in historic classes. Wonderful news for all E-Type owners. Well done Jaguar!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car ... iefly.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car ... nsive.html

Thanks David, sounds exciting

only be sold to owners who will use them on the ROAD and track

As they will basically be new cars, makes you wonder how they will comply with all the regulations re. emissions etc.

Its good news anyway, and well overdue. the likes of Mercedes etc have put this country to shame, well done TATA.

As the chassis numbers were allocated in 1962 and six remain unused the cars can still be assembled to the Construction and Use laws in force at that time. If they wanted to restart production of, say, the S3 those cars would need to meet current Construction and Use regulations because factory records show formally production ceased in 1973. Similarly they can't make a batch of XKSS's, C or D-Type's unless there are any unallocated chassis numbers we don't know about (and the ones destroyed in the fire can't be used either).

Aston Martin did the same trick a few years ago with the DB4GT Zagato Sanction II cars, one of which just sold at Bonham's for ?1,250,000.

Since they are being built with the intention of having them raced, do they have to meet any government standards as long as they aren't used on public highways? Meeting the requirements of the particular race course and class in which they were competing might be another thing, but would the government have any say in how they are configured?

Not if they are registered in the UK. They are regarded as long lost classic cars so will be treated the same as one of the other 11 extant Lightweights. Only problem if you would want to put it on the public highway is the 'date of first registration' which will be shown on the log book as 31/July/2015 or whatever. You could still put a period number plate on there. But if Jaguar provide a Heritage Certificate showing date of (intended!) manufacture as 1963 then even that will not be an issue. No big deal really because you can build your own 'Lightweight' with the identity of a donor car and you can then get FIA approval to race.

Last weekend I happened to speak at a car show to an individual who was exhibiting a "1966" Ford Shelby 427 Cobra which was actually one of the replicas made under Shelby's supervision by his own company in the early part of this century. These were virtually identical to the originals, but clearly replicas, so I found the 1966 dating rather bizarre. Whatever the price or provenance, I have a feeling that these lightweight cars will suffer from the same uncomfortable ambiguity. The future owners may not care however.

I was at Browns Lane today in my former old MkIX, 54 years after it left that place. I saw the Lightweight facility, albeit only from outside.

Pete

The cars will be sold as period competition vehicles and all will be suitable for FIA homologation for historic motor sport purposes.

"The prototype Lightweight is to be publicly revealed in California today"

So Pete, are you going to scrap the D Type project and order a lightweight instead?

In reality how can they do it. Are jaguar going to remake every single part or will they have to get out the sngb parts catalogue like the rest of us. There is no way jaguar will cast new engine blocks.

"The prototype Lightweight is to be publicly revealed in California today"

To be accurate this event was in January 1963!
The chassis number was to be the first of the 18 numbers but not used, leaving 6 at the end of the run and one at the beginning.
Answers on a post card!

The LWE project was born in 1962 for 18 cars but numbers only allocated in early 63.

SNG parts book is not much use here as all the significant hardware is unique, and mostly reproduced or modified from increasingly rare standard parts from the Jaguar inventory at the time, not all E-type. If you are very lucky you have a lot of original parts to work with

As usual the devil is in the detail, all 12 cars where different to a greater or lesser extent as they got to the end. Not many remained as they left the factory in period; with all the competed cars constantly trying to be brought up to the standard of the works prepared cars. This is why you hear terms like ?a standard LWE?, 86 PJ is probably the closest and probably the model for the 6 (7) new cars. This car however, lacked some of the extra monocoque strengthening. The new ones have the final spec in this respect.

I?m told the car depicted here is destined for the Trust and will not be sold, leaving 6.
There are many LWE, so called, copy cars out there already, but very very few are actually accurate and reflect a particular car in full with everything in the right place. Many builds have succumbed to the ?Jonnie come lately brigade? by having a modern interpretation of what they think Jaguar should have done. In my opinion you cannot really call them LWE?s.

Michael

The car used by Jaguar for the publicity is known as "car zero" and I think it is the car CMC built using the original Jaguar shell that became spare when they reconstructed the Lindner lightweight from the crumpled remains.

History goes something like this. Lynx Engineering bought the two remaining LWE shells off Jaguar. When the Lindner LWE became available after all the legal wrangling Lynx moved all the parts across to the spare shell and added the coupe roof (wrong shape unfortunately). Both wreck and reconstructed car remained together until they were bought by Peter Neumark who decided to do the restoration job properly. After the crashed shell was rebuilt all the parts were moved across from the Lynx car leaving CMC with a genuine LWE bodyshell. The original plan was to make a proper Lindner LWE copy so Peter could race it with impunity but they then decided to destroy the Lynx roof and return the car to 'standard' LWE specification. All the correct parts were sourced, the car was built by Andrew Turvey and the last I heard was Jaguar were impressed enough to allocate it an S850xxx chassis number. I assume Jaguar now own this car and are using it as the basis of the six continuation copies.

David, hmm,
5/10
JCB bought the shells off Jaguar in about 1972, JCB sold to Guy Black. My Dad was trying to buy them at the same time.
The car built by CMC using the last factory shell, originally used by Lynx to produce a very poor reconstruction (my opinion) of the Linder, car is registered 4 GXO and is chassis number 879073 body R5853. (This Body number is very close to start of LWE numbers). Andrew has put an S prefix on the chassis number which I think is reasonable. It has an original alloy block and W/A head.
It has a RS Panels hard top and other panels.
The car used in the marketing may well be a debadged 4 GXO, it is an accurate car; I did think Jaguar had done rather well finishing a car this quickly since delivery of the first body shell in June.

I agree with your the rebirth description of the Linder car and CMC and Andrew in particular have successfully gone to great lengths to get it right and I think it is as near as can be done. They chose to rebuild 4 GXO as a standard LWE, not as I understand, due to any lack of availability of a suitable roof. Agreed the Lynx one was very wrong anyway. The structure of this, ex spare shell, was quite a bit behind the spec needed to be a Linder car copy, and why would Peter want another Linder copy based on an original works shell.
Remember, the shells as they came from Abbey Panels where made from panels pressed on production tooling and assembled as such. When they arrived in the Comp shop for fitting out they were considered way to flimsy. They then set about adding strength all over the place, this evolved slightly as the later cars were built. But this was only done as the cars where called up for build, so the remaining 2 spare shells didn't get the strengthening by the works- fact.
4 of the spare shells where used to rebuild other cars and strengthened at that time, there are a few subtle differences, which I won't mention here that give that away, which cars is not a secret anyway.
My Dad had access to one for a period and told me himself they were not very stiff, this is backed up when you listen to people like Peter Wilson who was doing it at the time.
The finished Linder car (may have been the bare body before assembly) was lent to a very well known and reputable, company and mapped, a copy car was built which is identical, to the rivet spacing, to the Linder car as it is now, this is not complete yet, as of a couple of months ago. The team have been busy on another important project.
I hope Jaguar take a leaf out of Listers book and involve some of the surviving comp shop employees to cast an eye over what is being done, I think it adds credibility and authenticity when so much is out sourced, (as was in period) but the essence is in the assembly of the parts and the final detail with so many parts being standard parts modified to competition spec. It would be quite arrogant of Jaguar to just listen to modern opinion, having said that, they have chosen their main suppliers wisely, from what I know.
I?d be impressed if the current JLR group has sufficient LWE knowledgeable internal employees to do the job without assistance from certain other businesses with a Historic Racing linkage to Jaguar Heritage.

All very interesting and good for the marque.
Michael