The handbuilt pair of modern classics come with a heated windscreen, Bluetooth, and electronic fuel injection
All that is to say, you could order a factory-correct Jaguar E-Type from the company proper for the past several years—but it wasn’t until just now that a customer’d thought to commission Jaguar to build an entirely new E-Type from scratch.
Meet the E-Type Commemorative, a two-unit run (is it possible for Jaguar to not offer E-Types in pairs?) of brand-new classic Jaguars based on the blueprints for the Series I, but with a host of modern touches. As a pair of one-off two-off roadsters, they don’t technically count as “continuation cars,” but they do count as the first E-Types that Jaguar has built in 50 years. (That’s if you rule out six E-Type Lightweight race cars the company built from scratch around 2015 or so.)
The Commemorating the name is referring to is, in fact, that production end date of 1974, and in tribute the Signet Green on the one car and Opal Black on the other are pulled from that year’s catalog of paint options.
Don’t look for that sort of ’60s or ’70s correct-ness in the rest of the build, though—these Series I-inspired cars are throwbacks, sure, with styling touches and amenities drawn from across the E-Types production run, but they also come complete with quite a few modern updates.
Those include trick tech like a heated windscreen and a Bluetooth connection, not to mention a bespoke Bridge-of-Weir leather interior. The engine is Jaguar’s classic 3.8-litre six, yes, but the four-speed manual has been ditched for a more-current five-speed, and the carbs have been swapped out for electronic fuel injection for modern liveability.
It’s unclear how much the “loyal, discerning client in Southeast Asia” who commissioned the cars paid for the world’s first new E-Types in a half-decade, but considering the aforementioned E-Type Reborn starts at CDN$650,000 and is built off an existing car, we’d say a ballpark of seven figures per feels about right.
Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on X, Tiktok and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice.