Currently reading: Jaguar to build six new Lightweight E-types
'Missing' six Lightweight E-types from the original production run to be completed and sold to customers

Jaguar is to build six ‘brand new’ Lightweight E-types, 50 years after an original 12 units were produced.

A total of 18 Lightweight E-types were set to be built between 1963 and 1964, but only 12 were ever made. Now Jaguar’s Heritage Business arm will finish the production run using chassis numbers assigned but unused in the 1960s.

Read our history of the iconic Jaguar E-Type

Originally produced specifically for racing, the Lightweight E-types were designed to take the fight to rivals from Ferrari on the track. The cars had several appearances at Le Mans, but largely without success.

The six models will be built to the exact specifications of the 1960s originals, including the aluminium-block 3.8-litre straight six engine and the aluminium body.

Customers will be able to choose their own colour and trim specifications for the race-bred model, which is 114kg lighter than a standard E-type thanks to a lack of interior trim and exterior chrome detailing. 

Director of the Heritage Business Derek Weale said: "The E-type is an iconic car, and the Lightweight E-type is the most desirable model of all. To be able to complete the intended production run of 18, some 50 years after the last Lightweight was completed, is an opportunity we couldn't miss".

Pricing information will be revealed closer to the car's launch later this summer.

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Mark Tisshaw

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Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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Citytiger 17 May 2014

Why are BMW & Audi

sales up, oh yes thats right, because their big movers the 3 series and the A4 are the equivalent of the Cortina/Cavalier, Mondeo/Vectra, Mondeo/Insignia, fleet cars, most of which are on lease, flogged to death up and down the motorway by uncaring drivers, and then having their residuals kept artificially high because of the badge on the nose, fleet sales, big discounts and chasing targets almost killed Ford and Vauxhall, how long before the general public wake up and smell the coffee..
Norma Smellons 15 May 2014

They meant to make half a

They meant to make half a million more X Types than they actually did. I wonder when they'll get around to finishing those?
disco.stu 14 May 2014

Not too sure about this

As much as I like to see an immaculate E-Type out on the roads, the idea of building another 6 "because we originally intended to" is the thin end of the wedge. And what has not yet been raised is how 'original' these cars will really be, as there will almost certainly be some 'improvements' along the way.

What if McLaren decided to cash in on the current interest in the F1 by knocking out another couple of hundred (they announced that they would build 300, but barely made it to 80 and lost a truckload of money along the way). Or what if Ferrari decided to milk the 250 GTO a bit more and produce a 'continuation' series, since they never made the required amount for homologation anyway, they could finally get around to it and sell them for millions. They could do it, but should they?

Where does it end? Classic cars should be maintained, restored and celebrated, but I don't think that the manufacturers should be building new versions of 1960s cars.

bomb 15 May 2014

disco.stu wrote: And what

disco.stu wrote:

And what has not yet been raised is how 'original' these cars will really be, as there will almost certainly be some 'improvements' along the way.

I was thinking the same thing. I can't imagine Jaguar would supply the 'new' cars with the same god-awful gearbox that the originals had. That would put them at an immediate disadvantage with Eagle et al.