The right type of E-type
News & Events
Our continual quest for improvement.
We maintain a continual programme of developement to improve the Jaguar E-Type, without diluting the original character, and recent upgrades range from such relatively insignificant items as our high power windscreen washer pump – to the much requested and more substantial task of offering an effective air conditioning system.
Additions to our extensive catalogue of upgrades include;
An electric power assisted steering conversion that is almost visually unnoticeable, but is powerful, silent, and transforms ‘in town’ driving, parking, and negotiating hairpin bends. The system is controlled by ECU, is speed sensitive, and increases power assistance only when necessary operating in a lovely unobtrusive manner.
After a huge amount of development in conjunction with a top level manufacturer we offer absolute ‘State of the art’ custom designed and built adjustable dampers that transform the comfort, grip, and ride of our E-Types by staggering proportions. The parameters of adjustment enable huge benefits for both virtually standard style E-Types, and full SuperSport examples.
The photograph shows Dean Bennett and Andy Pitwell working on the new evaporater housing for our second evolution of air conditioning which now gains the benefit of being able to recirculate cabin air, when required, increasing the system effectiveness.
It is no larger than our original system which neatly and satisfactorily countered the primary technical issue of limited space and the need for the components to be hidden from view. The ‘look’ under the bonnet is a very important feature of the E-Type and must not be spoiled.
A separate system to duct fresh air to the face, by means of an adjustable ‘eyeball’ socket, is a further comfort development, and is advantageous to standard E-Types, as well as air conditioned cars - in which cases the vent actually guides refrigerated air.
Classic and Sportscar shootout
Classic and Sportscar magazine pitched an Eagle supplied V12 2+2 against a Ferrari 365GT 2+2 for their February 2008 edition. Graeme Hurst drove the pair and concluded that they are both scintillating and affordable true gentlemen’s GT’s. He stated that; “With such effortless torque, the E-Type would be tops for sophisticated urban use; it is easy to picture yourself on a late night blast across the West End – the reflection of city lights drizzled across that voluptuous bonnet – as you head for a night-cap at the Savoy before dashing on to your country pile”
Thanks to Giles Cook for submitting his lovely E-Type for the comparison.
CAR magazine feature
CAR ran a nice positive feature on the virtues of the Jaguar E-Type using some stunning 'moody' images by Mark Fagelson taken here on the farm.
The subject E-Type, in gunmetal with red interior, was our stunning original and low mileage 4.2 fixed head coupe. We are currently using this gem as our customer collection car to and from the local train station and it has firmly become our favoured mode of transport when we have motoring trip's to make.
The feature was in the December issue....number 544.
Fitted luggage
Destroying the myth that E-Type roadsters have little luggage carrying capacity, we are very pleased to offer our beautiful new five piece selection of bespoke fitted luggage that transforms the comfort level of 'grand touring' holidays and motoring 'rallys'.
The three custom built 'hard' cases, shown in the boot, effectively exploit the surprisingly cavernous – but odd shaped - roadster boot area. The 'third' case complements our 'extra luggage space' conversion and still leaves plenty of space for tool roll and hazard triangle etc.
The cases are handmade in black or tan leather with Alcantara linings, combination locks, and are all proudly embossed with our logo.
We also have a 'custom' custom case variation that caters for the the slightly reduced boot area that E-Types with our integrated Audio systems afford.
The 'soft' bags are described below.
Revolutionary roadster cockpit 'hand baggage' solution
We have neatly exploited the usually wasted space behind all variations of roadster seats including our Eagle Sports seats shown here.
We offer a pair of unique and exclusive leather 'soft'bags that fit easily and snuggly behind you, with the hood up or down, and contain the contents safely from flying around the cockpit, or simply getting lost under the seat.
They are handmade in either black or tan leather, with alcantara lining, interior document flap, and handy side pockets that are easily accessed with the bags in place, and that offer the perfect spot to keep wallets and phones etc.
Perfectly matching our full custom boot luggage they are embossed with our eagle logo.
The 'Ultimate, Ultimate E-Type' .......from the makers of the 'Ultimate E-Type'
Eagle are realising their long conceived dream to build the ultimate high speed Classic GT car.
A sensational and purposeful continental touring E-Type with styling taking the best from the few ‘Low Drag Coupes’ that were built during the E-Type Jaguars racing heyday. Seen here (in its current state of build) awaiting choice of colour, the lines have been toned, the features extensively tidied, and the result - from any angle - is the most stunning and awesome E-Type ever. (Remember that Enzo Ferrari exclaimed the E-Type to be the most beautiful looking car ever made!)
The all aluminium lightweight body was constructed for us by RS Panels, recognized Worldwide as building the very best aluminium E-type bodys, incorporating our specific design criteria. Combined with our high torque 4.7 litre engine, 5 speed transmission, and touring axle ratio, will result in devastating performance and impressive high speed touring capabilities.
Essentially invisible, are all the practical solutions missing from the pure race cars. The shell is longer, the floors are lower, and the vastly increased cabin space with extra head and legroom as a result, maximises driver and passenger comfort and it has longer doors to aid access. Other impassioned attention to detail includes; specially cast over-diameter magnesium wheels to accommodate suitable modern but correct looking tyres, flush bonded heated glass - front and rear, an air conditioning system integrated within the structure of the car to avoid adverse cabin detail changes, a trunk capable of carrying a sensible amount of luggage, and a long range fuel cell.
Of course, the rest of the specification draws from the best of our legendary reliability, safety, comfort and performance upgrades and will convincingly result in the ultimate – ultimate.
New engine shop
Our purpose built engine shop is now established and in full swing. Greg White is seen here stripping a V12 engine before he commences one of his precise and meticulous rebuilds.
Restoration of the Year
We were delighted to have had our commitment and conscientious attention to detail duly recognized by ’86 PJ’ becoming a top three nomination for the ‘Restoration of the Year’ award at the Stoneleigh Historic Car Show.
We spent a great deal of effort to ensure that we preserved the lovely originality and patina of this famous E-Type and it is satisfying to receive this high accolade.
Further details of the restoration, and its subsequent first outing to Goodwood in the hands of Grand Prix legend, John Watson, can be seen in our news archive (link at the bottom of this page)
Proudly introducing......
New to the Eagle Team we introduce Rizla.
Here he is, with Karen and Henry, getting comfortable with the interior of an E-Type Roadster at the suitably early age of just 8 weeks!
He is looking forward to welcoming you onto the farm.
E-type Club day
Eagle's Steve Head and Greg May enjoyed a lovely day out at the World's oldest speed hillclimb, Shelsley Walsh, attending The E-Type club's second main annual club day meeting.
Steve and Greg had a great road trip taking up a fabulous pair of Series 1, 4.2's - both stunning in opalescent silver blue - as seen here.
The fixed head is a 3000 mile Eagle built GT, with 5 speed Eagle gear box, air conditioning, and our Sports seats..... The other (Eagle E-Type No.11) is a roadster with 7,500 miles, also a GT, and also with sports seats. We currently offer both for sale and full details can be seen on our 'Jaguar E-Types for sale' page.
It was an enjoyable and succesful club day (and we were delighted to see a good percentage of E-Types sporting our Eagle windscreen stickers!) and it showed how the E-type club is going from strength to strength. They are a hard working bunch, led by Jaguar historian and author, Philip Porter, and we highly recommend the worth of becoming a member. As well as being presented with interesting event opportunities throughout the year, the monthly 40 page club magazine is produced to a very high standard and is dedicated to the loves of our lives.
www.e-typeclub.com
Eagle Racing
We are very pleased to have restored a 1963 3.8 roadster as a fabulous aluminium lightweight for Andy Jenkinson to campaign in the ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Gentlemen Drivers’ race series.
We are fortunate to have restored the car; '26 PJ', alongside '86 PJ' which is the best example in existence of the 12 original ‘lightweights’ that Jaguar built. This made it much easier to ensure that we have mantained as much authentic detail as possible and fully comply with the FIA regulations.
Andy won the AMOC championship outright in 2003, and competed in ‘OWC 4’ last year in several races including the Spa 6 hour where he drove it 2 seconds a lap fastest than the other E-Types. He has commisioned '26 PJ' primarily to make the crucial weight saving gained by the fabulous 'RS Panels' all aluminium shell.
‘OWC 4’ is a steel/aluminium fully prepared race car and can currently be seen on our stocklist as well as here to the right.
Interestingly it is the only E-Type that Stirling Moss has ever raced.
Masterpiece 2008
High tech paint manufacturer, Spies Hecker, sent a photography team from Germany especially to capture a fittingly stunning image of one of our latest creations in order to contest their acclaimed 'Masterpiece' competition, and to hence automatically become a proud entry in next years Spies Hecker calender.
The subject matter is Chris Kays V12 Commemorative which he will be collecting this summer, and taking it to its new home in Spain.
The main calender photograph will also include our bodyshop team of Andy Sharp, Dean Bennett, and Lorenzo Crane and will also serve as a fitting tribute to their skill and dedication.
Eagle bodyshell No. 20 - and still smiling
The E-Type monocoque is a notoriously difficult body shell to build. The 40+ year old design pioneered this type of structural ‘chassis less’ body construction and is hence inherent with constructional difficulties. This is worsened by the fact that the tools used to press out the new panels were well worn even before Jaguar themselves had finished with them. This results in the panels needing a good tweak before you can start stitching the jigsaw together.
Despite this, Eagles ace metalworking team - Dean Bennett and Larry Crane – are seen here still smiling whilst well underway with constructing Eagles 20th ‘new’ Jaguar E-type.
This is a crucially important stage because a perfectly assembled shell is the key to an exceptional resultant E-type. It is at this early stage that countless modifications and tweaks are made to the body to facilitate the clients chosen custom upgrades, and all the chrome work and hoodframe etc. are ‘dry’ fitted before being plated and painted, ensuring a perfect fit on final assembly to the painted body.
Eagle No, 20 is destined for North America, and the Eagle currently subject to mechanical assembly is due for Australia.
Bespoke tailoring
Eagle's Matt Dewhurst has just completed a full retrim - in cream leather with dark blue piping and carpet - and it looks stunning.
Alastair Duke bought this fine example of V12 Coupe from us with dark blue paintwork and its original red upholstery. The red leather was not to Alastair's wife's taste, so we were very happy to retrim the car in their chosen colours, which looks superb.
This, combined with his personal choice from the array of other upgrade packages we offer, has enabled Alastair to pick the very best example of his desired model from our showroom, and have it delivered in his absolute ideal and individual specification.
Does my bum look big on this?
Never has the E-Type Jaguar looked so svelte and lithe as when standing next to the new XK!
MSN carried an interesting story, with some great photos, on their motoring home page recently after driving one of our standard 3.8 Roadsters 'back to back' with Jaguars latest sports offering.
full story; http://cars.msn.co.uk/carnews/xkandetypemay06/
Top Gear
A 3.8 Roadster from our showroom made mincemeat of an Aston Martin DB5 on BBC TV’s Top Gear during a classic shootout last year.
Clarkson proclaimed it to be fabulous and the “best E-Type he had ever driven”, whilst the Stig well and truly proved the performance of our mild Eagle GT specification by beating the lap time of a Lotus Esprit V8 and equalling the V6 Audi TT Quattro!
.....Well this lovely example is now undergoing further uprating to our Sport specification for owner David Buckland, and it would be so nice to see how many more modern sports cars - higher up the 'Top Gear lap time board' - that it could shock after we have fitted the Eagle 'Sport' engine, suspension, brakes and 5 speed gearbox!
Lightweight Jaguar E-Types - Heavyweight Eagle commitment
Tommy Atkins road going E-Type, ’75 PJ’, is reunited with his racing E-Type, ’86 PJ’, here at Eagle.
Owner, Dick Crosthwaite, bought the car back in 1973 and having ‘run’ just about everything – including a Ferrari 250GTO as a ‘daily driver’ – claims there is “only one thing any good” which, of course, is the Jaguar E-Type.
Dick decided to convert ’75 PJ’ to an authentic lightweight but the storming success of Crosthwaite and Gardner as exotic automotive engineers with a fantastic Worldwide reputation, somewhat got in the way of finishing the job.
Conceding that the Auto Union, Bugatti and Vintage Mercedes (etc) restoration and parts remanufacturing is never going to leave enough time in the day, ’75 PJ’ has been sent down to nestle comfortably between ’86 PJ’ and ’26 PJ’ and will now be finished and fulfilling Dick’s personal motoring requirements a mere 33 years down the line. An advantage of waiting this long to finish the car however, is that he has had time to amass a great collection of genuine original 'lightweight' parts to incorporate in the project.
The first job is to scrape off over 20 years of dust and see what we have got!
The new Eagle Low Drag Coupe alongside our all aluminium Lightweight Roadster - an evocative and mouthwatering sight.
Eagles latest shocker
In dramatic contrast to our authentic and sympathetic re-commissioning of the famous factory lightweight, the very next large scale project to have been released from Eagle’s hallowed farm buildings is a bit of a Hot Rod. In keeping with our core philosophy, it is still virtually indistinguishable from a standard car and, of course, still retains its inherent Jaguar ambience. But it does everything you could hope and expect of an E-Type - but in bigger and better doses.
As well as possessing all of our well proven and established reliability and handling attributes, Grahams Clempsons 3.8 Roadster also incorporates the very latest Eagle developments including; ECU managed electric power steering, Air conditioning, ‘state of the art’ damping and, most dramatic of all, our latest 4.7 litre engine upgrade.
Something special was always on the cards for Graham because he wanted his E-Type to match the performance of his BMW Z8, and it should not be a disappointment to drive after stepping out of his Porsche 996 Turbo. A tall order indeed but we have greatly surpassed his expectations and, helped in part by the huge 362ft/lb of torque from the engine, enabled him to shock the latest Ferraris and Porsches with its staggering capabilities during its maiden outing – a 2500 mile supercar rally to Monaco! Being voted ‘best car of the rally’ was the icing on the cake for Graham as well as knowing that he most probably has the fastest and nicest ‘road friendly’ E-Type ever built.
Importantly, it manages to be comfortable, safe and a wholly pleasurable place to spend time in - as well as being super fast - thanks to many details including our Sports seats, 5 speed gearbox, powerful brakes, stability modifications to the suspension, air conditioning with face vents, extra luggage space, a powerful integrated Hi Fi system, power steering and easy light controls,.
86 PJ’ Storms the hill at Goodwood
Eagle are proud to have conducted a sympathetic restoration to Jaguar’s ‘works’ lightweight racer; ‘86 PJ’.
As detailed, and serialised, in Jaguar World magazine recently, this was a sensationally well preserved example of one of the 12 ‘all aluminium’ racing E-Types that the factory produced in 1963. This example had covered a staggeringly low 2000 miles, albeit on racing circuits, and apart from enduring several colour changes throughout its hectic early racing career, stayed unmolested, undamaged and incredibly original. With this in mind the re-commissioning was an historically important and delicate task in order to avoid loosing any of the valuable and irreplaceable patina and charm that, thankfully, remained in lashings.
The car had enjoyed a glamorous early existence and was campaigned successfully, and most predominantly, by Roy Salvadori who battled against such notables as Graham Hill, and such machinery as Ferraris 250 GTO’s.
Being a race ‘tool’ it was then passed down through several other campaigners and colour changed to suit. It finally retired in a creamy shade of white and sat peaceful and dormant for the bulk of its life.
By the time Eagle rebuilt, and prompted the all aluminium, wide angle headed, fuel injected and dry sumped engine back into life, the shell had been returned to its original shade of a mossy metallic green. Every component, by now, had been painstakingly examined, restored as appropriate, and re assembled so that the car looked in fabulous condition…but certainly did not appear restored or new. It proved to be a far more challenging task than to rebuild ‘to new’ but more than worth the hours of fanatical attention to detail, when the finished car was presented to the entire historic motor racing world, at the 2005 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and received plenty of satisfying acclaim.
Bonus reward was to watch Formula 1 legend, John Watson, launching ’86 PJ’ successfully up the hill all weekend.
More TV
Edd China and the Discovery RT team spent a day filming a piece for their forthcoming series about Classic cars.
A single day proved little time to capture our entire perspective, in relation to their story, after witnessing first hand the Eagle approach and sprawling countryside set up.
However, they worked hard, and late, and the programme is now running at various times on Discovery RT already.
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