Description
Author: Chris Harvey, Hardbound, 236 Pages, ISBN: 9780902280427, 1979 Reprint of 1977 Original - Second-Hand book in excellent unread condition !
There will never be another car like the Jaguar E type. It was so good that everything else paled before it. It was ludicrously low-priced for what it was: the last of the great racing cars that could be driven on the road, not just on the track. It was in effect the Le Mans winner that anybody could drive — even a timid learner—because it was so docile. There was nothing practical that had the same wild and wonderful performance, the same speed and beauty.
There is still no other car, which, when you hit the accelerator hard at 100 mph, throws its nose in the air and takes off like a rocket. Only cars costing three times as much can do anything approaching these tricks, and even they cannot take off in top gear, tootle along in traffic without boiling over, look as sexy, or last as long.
E type: End of An Era has been carefully researched and written to appeal to the enthusiast. It comprises history, biography, anecdotes and technical chapters; the author tells you how to look after your car as only another E type owner can, gives you valuable advice on the interchangeability of parts and gives an honest and constructive appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the car. Separate chapters compare the E type with its contemporary rivals, describe the racing Jaguars and analyse the reasons behind why the E type had to go. The result is a colourful, practical and unfailingly interesting book.
Because the author is a newspaper man, and because the man who has compiled and in many cases taken the glorious colour pictures is a renowned Jaguarophile, there are no wasted words or redundant photographs.
The book is as functional as the car itself, and like the E type, there is nothing in the same class.
Picture research by Paul Skilleter
Chris Harvey has owned three E types in ten years. His first, a 1961 roadster 493 WPJ, with the suspension from a lightweight E type, was bought in 1967 and was run for three years and 70,000 miles before being written off by a van owned by his employers, The Sun newspaper.
Chris kept the wrecked car and bought a tired-looking 1966 4.2-litre roadster with 60,000 miles on the clock. Parts were gradually transferred to it from the 3.8-litre, including the excellent suspension, although the original engine was retained till it blew up at 180,000 miles during a fast run on a motorway just outside Paris. The fully sorted and balanced 3.8 engine was then dropped in and in this form the car is today going better than ever.
Chris bought his third E type — another write off — in 1972; it was a 1964 standard 3.8 roadster. Parts from both his 1961 and 1966 cars went on to that, it was later sold, and 493 WPJ is still running today.
Will Chris ever part with his own E type? In moments of black depression or impending financial crisis he has been heard to say it will have to go. But I doubt it. Would a soldier sell his boots?
Chris Harvey was born in Norwich in 1941. He has enjoyed a colourful and varied career and today he is a Fleet Street sub-editor. He is also Technical Adviser to the Jaguar Drivers' Club's E type Register.
