Silverstone had a E-Type celebration and a parade lap. There were so many that they had to be in two groups. Here is a You Tube video of the second group. Just an unbelievable amount of E-Types in one place, especially since the US was supposed to be the largest market and we never have seen a gathering like this. Enjoy the video.

Submitted by hamiltonl@mac.com on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 08:47

The Jaguar Club of Northern California held a well attended 50th anniversary event at the Blackhawk Auto Museum in June. The 3 day event attracted about 40 E Types and about 30 other Jaguars. Attendees came from the Bay Area, Southern California, Colorado, Oregon and Arizona. IT was a great event.

For those interested pictures can be seen at http://jagles.smugmug.com/Cars/Classics/20110612Jag50Blackhawk/17531903_...
and
http://www.mountaintreestudios.com/PhotographyPortfolio/Cars/index.html

The Silverstone event with 850 Jaguars must have been something else.

Les Hamilton
74 OTS

Submitted by NE40-48370 on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 05:51

Yes it was amazing to be part of it, but since every E-type in the UK is within a full day's drive of centrally-located Silverstone, you can see why the turn-out was good.

The overwhelming majority were UK-registered cars, though a decent share of those will have been re-imported from the USA. It would be interesting to know what the percentage distribution of E-types is today across the world, as opposed to where they were first sold. I think it might be a lot closer between UK/Europe and the USA today than it ever was before. Four out of five of my E-types have been American re-imports, so don't feel too bad that you can't scrape together 850 participants at the drop of a hat :-)

It was great to see lots of European cars but in numerical terms they were a small percentage. I think in the UK/Europe E-types were seen right from the start as an expensive car for the 'stars'. Not expensive compared to Astons and Ferraris etc but not something the average Joe could just go out and buy, hence they were not just discarded as they became obsolete. As you can see from www.xkedata.com (if you go to the 'Stats' page) the percentage survival of RHD E-types is very high, especially the OTS, which was glamour upon glamour in our cloudy and damp little country. I cannot imagine a student having an E-type at college, or anyone having an E-type as their first car in the UK, yet there are several listers just on the Jag-Lovers E-type forum for whom this was the case. If the survival is lower in the USA I guess it reflects the fact the cars were less iconic at the time and you had more domestic high-performance options to choose from in the 60s and 70s.

This is a nice little link from a local TV station that covers the Birmingham/Coventry area and has a few clips I had not seen before. If his car had 'atrocious brakes' and 'a lively back end' by the standards of the day, we know there must have been something wrong with it, but we can forgive him that as he obviously loved his E-types. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibRrYDFVkwU&feature=related

Pete

Submitted by SW05-50017 on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 00:50

Re E-Types in Monterey next month, the Rolex Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca will have a special competition E-Type class which races on Saturday. On Friday there will be an E-Type class at The Quail show in Carmel Valley, with about fifteen cars, including several very early examples, including my own (875045).which was the first E-Type sold in California. On Sunday at Pebble Beach will be 885005 (the 1961 Geneva show car) and 875003 (one of the four 1961 New York show cars). I have also heard a rumor that Jaguar might send over 9600 HP and 77 RW but this is as yet unconfirmed.

Submitted by bonnettoboot@e… on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 00:07

Nice video Dick, what I find amazing is that here in Los Angeles we are doing NOTHING, and, we were Jaguars biggest market. These cars are from all over Europe many of whom come to the international E type yearly meet. As most probably know there is to be a special tribute to the E Type at Laguna Seca on August 17th I have tried to get information but can't even get Danny at the track to call me back!