--- title: Jaguar E-Type · HICONIUM description: "Malcolm Sayer shaped the E-Type from calculated ellipses, on a monocoque-and-subframe recipe taken straight from the D-Type — then Jaguar sold it for a third of a Ferrari's price. Series, body style and the earliest details decide which cars lead the market." canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/jaguar/e-type image: https://hiconium.dev/og/vehicle/jaguar/e-type.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.dev/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.dev/) › [Vehicles](https://hiconium.dev/models) › [Jaguar](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/jaguar) › E-Type > On this page: [The price and the proof](#the-price-and-the-proof) · [Model readouts](#model-readouts) · [Documented sales](#documented-sales) · [The racer's recipe, sold at a road-car price](#overview-heading) · [Technical specifications](#technical-specifications) · [Powertrain](#powertrain) · [Structure and chassis](#structure-and-chassis) · [The people behind the car](#the-people-behind-the-car) · [Malcolm Sayer](#malcolm-sayer) · [William Heynes](#william-heynes) · [Bob Knight](#bob-knight) · [Norman Dewis](#norman-dewis) · [Sir William Lyons](#sir-william-lyons) · [Member instruments](#member-instruments) ![An Opalescent Silver Blue Jaguar E-Type Series 1 roadster, front three-quarter view on a silver-blue field with a warm daylight glow](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/jaguar-e-type/hero-wide-2560.jpg) # E-Type 150 mph for £2'097 Malcolm Sayer shaped the E-Type from calculated ellipses, on a monocoque-and-subframe recipe taken straight from the D-Type — then Jaguar sold it for a third of a Ferrari's price. Series, body style and the earliest details decide which cars lead the market. 1961 to 1974 · about 72'500 built · Coventry ## The price and the proof Indicative road-car band $60K–$300K · 1 documented road sales · 2 recorded sales on file. Modeled values are not observed sales. Nothing here is investment advice. Confidence: medium. The E-Type trades in volume, so guide coverage is deep; the band spans honest drivers to concours Series 1 two-seaters. Series, body and originality move a car across the whole band: Series 2, 2+2 and automatic cars sit low, covered-headlight Series 1 roadsters high. Flat-floor early cars and anything with period competition history price above it. Figures in USD for six-cylinder road cars across Series 1–3. Lightweights, Low Drag and continuation cars are excluded. The best road car result is £911'250 for the first customer roadster at Gooding London in 2023. The twelve 1963–64 Lightweights are a separate market: $7'370'000 and $8'000'000 at Bonhams in 2017 remain the public ceiling. Valuation method and source rules: [HICONIUM standards](https://hiconium.dev/standards). Observed auction results across the wider market: [Market terminal](https://hiconium.dev/market). ### Model readouts Synthetic model · insufficient ledger. model v1 · seed jaguar-e-type. Compound annual growth is modeled price CAGR; S&P 500 is a price index without dividends. Forecast quantiles are not investment advice. | Window | This car* | S&P 500 | Gold | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1Y | -33.7% | +18.8% | +21.9% | | 5Y | -36.3% | +11.4% | +17.6% | | Series | Deepest drawdown | Window | | --- | --- | --- | | This car* | -98.3% | Aug 2017 → Jul 2026 · not recovered | | S&P 500 | -20.3% | Dec 2021 → Oct 2022 · recovered Dec 2023 | | Gold | -18.9% | Feb 2026 → Jul 2026 · not recovered | | Horizon | P10 | P50 | P90 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +6M | $121'858 | $133'095 | $145'368 | | +12M | $118'231 | $132'035 | $147'450 | | +24M | $111'567 | $129'939 | $151'336 | ### Documented sales 2 recorded. Every public sale on this file, newest first. Amounts keep the recorded currency. Source links appear only when the catalog stores a public auction-lot URL. | Date | Chassis / label | Class | House | Venue | Amount | Currency | Basis | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2017-08-18 | Bonhams · Quail Lodge, Carmel · incl. buyer's premium | Road | Bonhams | Quail Lodge, Carmel | $8'000'000 | USD | incl. buyer's premium | [https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/23977/lot/52/1963-jaguar-e-type-lightweight-chassis-no-s850664-engine-no-ra-1349-9s/](https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/23977/lot/52/1963-jaguar-e-type-lightweight-chassis-no-s850664-engine-no-ra-1349-9s/) | | 2017-01-19 | Bonhams · Scottsdale · incl. buyer's premium | Competizione | Bonhams | Scottsdale | $7'370'000 | USD | incl. buyer's premium | [https://www.motortrend.com/news/1963-jaguar-e-type-lightweight-competition-2017-bonhams-scottsdale-sale-feature-car](https://www.motortrend.com/news/1963-jaguar-e-type-lightweight-competition-2017-bonhams-scottsdale-sale-feature-car) | Published auction totals include buyer's premium. Guide bands are date-stamped snapshots — Hagerty and Classic Trader, 2025 — not appraisals; matching numbers, Heritage Certificate colours and early-car details require car-by-car review. ## The racer's recipe, sold at a road-car price Jaguar had left works racing in 1956 with the D-Type's construction proven. The E-Type carried it to the road: a monocoque tub, a bolted front subframe, Malcolm Sayer's calculated ellipses, and Bob Knight's new independent rear suspension. At Geneva in March 1961 the roadster cost £2'097 including tax — an Aston Martin cost roughly twice as much, a Ferrari three times. The launch tests printed 149 to 150 mph from factory-prepared press cars on racing tyres; honest customer cars ran slower, and nobody cared. The 4.2 of October 1964 brought torque, an all-synchromesh gearbox and better seats behind the unchanged shape; the long-wheelbase 2+2 of 1966 added occasional seats and the first automatic. From 1967 American regulation opened the headlights and leaned the US engines — the transitional cars collectors call Series 1½, then the Series 2 of 1968. The Series 3 of 1971 put Jaguar's new 5.3-litre V12 into the long floor and made the E-Type a grand tourer; the last car was built in June 1974, closing at about 72'500 cars. The shape never left the culture: MoMA took a 1963 roadster as only the third automobile in its collection in 1996, and in 2014 Jaguar completed the six unused Lightweight chassis numbers as continuation cars. | Highlight | Detail | | --- | --- | | Drawn with aircraft mathematics | Malcolm Sayer came from the Bristol Aeroplane Company and shaped the body from calculated ellipses rather than styling sketches, refined with wind-tunnel work. MoMA later called the E-Type one of the first large-production cars to evolve out of aerodynamic concepts. The covered-headlight nose survived until 1967, when regulation opened the lamps and thickened the details. | | Two overnight drives made the legend | For the Geneva reveal on 15 March 1961, PR man Bob Berry drove the grey coupé 9600 HP through the night and arrived with minutes to spare. Demand was so fierce that Sir William Lyons phoned Coventry for a second car. Test engineer Norman Dewis left Browns Lane at a quarter to eight in the evening in 77 RW, the first production roadster, and reached the Parc des Eaux Vives the next morning — roughly eleven hours on the road. | | One shape, three characters | The 3.8 is the purest and the rawest; the 4.2 from late 1964 kept the look, gained torque, better seats, better brakes and a gearbox with synchromesh on first; the Series 3 turned the car into a V12 grand tourer. The market prices those characters differently: covered-headlight Series 1 cars lead, the 1965–67 4.2 two-seaters are the driving sweet spot, Series 2 and the 2+2 are the value rungs, and most Series 3 cars are automatics. | | The first eighteen months price differently | Cars built to mid-1962 carry flat floors, external bonnet latches and, earliest of all, welded bonnet louvres — the details the market pays a clear premium for. Twelve aluminium Lightweights built in 1963–64 occupy a separate market entirely: the ex-Cunningham Le Mans car brought eight million dollars at Bonhams in 2017, the public ceiling for the name. | | Label | Value | | --- | --- | | Built | About 72'500 | | Series | 1 · 2 · 3 | | Bodies | OTS · FHC · 2+2 | | Body designer | Malcolm Sayer | | US name | XK-E | ## Technical specifications ### Powertrain | Label | Value | Note | | --- | --- | --- | | Engine, 1961–1964 | XK DOHC inline six, 3'781 cc | triple SU HD8, 265 bhp SAE gross claimed — period testers considered real output lower | | Engine, 1964–1971 | XK inline six, 4'235 cc | same claimed power, more torque; US emissions cars ran twin Strombergs from 1967 | | Engine, 1971–1974 | V12, 5'343 cc | SOHC per bank, four Zenith-Stromberg carburettors, about 272 bhp | | Gearbox | 4-speed manual | Moss box without first-gear synchromesh until October 1964, then Jaguar's all-synchromesh unit; Borg-Warner automatic from the 2+2 onward | ### Structure and chassis | Label | Value | Note | | --- | --- | --- | | Structure | Steel monocoque tub | bolted square-tube front subframe carries engine, steering and front suspension — the D-Type recipe | | Front suspension | Independent | torsion bars and telescopic dampers | | Rear suspension | Independent | Bob Knight's subframe-mounted IRS — lower wishbones, twin coil-over dampers | | Brakes | Dunlop discs | all four wheels, inboard at the rear | | Wheelbase | 96 in / 2'438 mm | 2+2 and every Series 3 use the 105 in / 2'667 mm floor | | Headlights | Glass-covered to 1967 | open lights on the transitional 1967–68 cars and every Series 2 and 3 | ## The people behind the car ### [Malcolm Sayer](https://hiconium.dev/people/malcolm-sayer) Aerodynamicist and body designer · Jaguar Shaped the E-Type from calculated ellipses and wind-tunnel work, carrying his C- and D-Type methods to a production road car. ### [William Heynes](https://hiconium.dev/people/william-heynes) Chief engineer · Jaguar Directed the programme: monocoque and subframe architecture, the XK six's road tune, and the engineering release of the 1961 car. ### Bob Knight Ride and handling engineer · Jaguar Developed the subframe-mounted independent rear suspension that defined the E-Type's ride and carried Jaguar saloons for decades. ### Norman Dewis Chief test engineer · Jaguar Proved the car in development and drove 77 RW overnight to Geneva when launch demand outran the single show car. ### [Sir William Lyons](https://hiconium.dev/people/sir-william-lyons) Founder and chairman · Jaguar Priced the E-Type against cars costing two and three times as much, and kept Sayer's shape unspoiled through the launch decade. ## Member instruments A HICON Bid is a confidential expression of buying interest on this file. It is not a binding purchase, and HICONIUM holds no funds. [Sign in](https://hiconium.dev/sign-in) to place one. Garage files for an owned chassis are member records and are not listed here. [How membership works](https://hiconium.dev/membership).