Combining Sir William Lyon's sleek styling and Malcolm Sayer's aerodynamic design, the Coventry cats epitomized the glamour and innovation of the time. The cars employed some novel motorsport styling cues taken from Jaguar's D-Type racing car, which had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three years in a row. With a promised V-max of 150 mph, equivalent to around 241 km/h, and a base price of £2097 - double that for one of its more exotic rivals - the E-Type was popular with racers and celebrities alike.
Today, sixty years later and almost 120 years after the birthday of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons, the famous big cats were gathered for a commemorative photo shoot in front of his long-time home. Chassis 9600HP and 77RW were used for the press drives, 885005 was shown on the Jaguar stand at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show.
"The E-Type is undoubtedly one of the greatest automotive icons of all time and one of the most loved classic cars in the world," says James Mitchell, founder of Pendine Historic Cars. "A big part of our business is curating the collections of great motoring enthusiasts, many of whom are kept in obscurity. Because of this, we have access to classic cars with significant provenance and famous locations and venues such as Wappenbury Hall. We wanted to have a bit of fun and take some photos of the cars reunited here on this great estate and give something back to their owners. Of course, we also wanted to bring joy to E-Type fans all over the world."
In the 60 years since their market launch, the three "Büsis" have had different owners and have been part of prestigious car collections, making a "reunion" almost impossible. To celebrate both of the aforementioned anniversaries, Pendine Historic Cars set out to bring the cars together at their spiritual home, something no one had done before.
Mitchell elaborates: "When 9600HP arrived at the Geneva Motor Show, Sir William Lyons said to his manager Bob Berry 'Great God, Berry. I thought you weren't coming back' and I like to imagine that today, when 9600HP, 77RW and chassis 005 meet again at his former home, Lyons would say the same. I thank the owner of the Hall and the owners of the vehicles for making it all possible."
Lyons' words to Berry refer to the fact that the latter drove 9600HP from Coventry to Geneva, arriving just 20 minutes before the opening of the Geneva Motor Show. On arrival, the demand for test drives was so great that Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis was instructed to drop everything to bring another E-Type to Geneva. He drove through the night and chassis 77RW arrived the following day.
Today, 77RW is owned by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, 9600HP belongs to Jaguar expert and founder of the International E-Type Club Phillip Porter and chassis 005 is owned by the well-known Zurich Jaguar collector Dr. Christian Jenny.
The photos were taken by the award-winning automotive photographer Jayson Fong a few weeks ago at Wappenbury Hall, which had been reimbursed by Jaguar enthusiast and collector Scott Sherman.
