It’s an E-Type, but not as you know it.
The world’s first stretched E-Type has been unveiled and will go on show in London later this week at a major automotive awards ceremony.
Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth has carried out a major restoration of the 1968-built series 1 4.2 roadster including a version stretched by four and a half inches.
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The company also created a trailer in the style of the original car for the owner, a client in the United States who intends to travel widely in country. It was built this from two E-Type rear ends joined together. Nick Goldthorp, managing director of CMC, said: “The car is phenomenal to drive. This is the E-Type that Jaguar Cars should have built. The extra space makes all the difference and actually alters the whole attitude of the car.”
The E-Type has been named “the Kaizen” by Paul Branstad, the owner, and takes its name from one of Toyota’s founding principles, Kaizen, which means “understand the imperative to make continuous improvements and then get to work.”
Mr Branstad said that he had named the E-Type in this way because he thought that the original Jaguar designer, Malcolm Sayer, would have approved of what he wanted to do to the car while preserving its essence.
Mr Goldthorp added: “This is something that we have never done before. Our client wanted the interior leg room of a Series 3 V12 E-Type but the aesthetics of a Series 1 car.
“We have added four and a half inches to the floor pan, which will give the leg room of the V12 plus an additional one inch if required. The V12 was actually nine inches longer than a Series I but a lot of the additional room was behind the seats as storage and was not required on our project."
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Nick said: “By adding four and a half inches to the length of the car we were able to retain the overall look of the Series 1 and also turn this E-Type into a unique car.”
Along with these radical developments, the roof line has been raised by 1.25 inches above the drivers head and the boot floor lowered and reshaped to build in a 20 gallon fuel tank and to allow a wider spare wheel as the car was fitted with 16” diameter wire wheels shod with lower profile radial tyres.
The car has also been built with a host of CMC’s upgrades that range from air conditioning to power steering, upgraded brakes, five-speed gearbox, suspension and handling upgrades, amongst others.