All Entries Tagged With: "E-Type"
Tax Auction For Jaguar E-Type
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img IRS ::: Jaguar XKE
SO often in life someone’s loss is someone else’s gain. This Treasury auction of property seized by Uncle Sam – a 1973 Jaguar E-Type V12 roadster – appears to be one such instance. Should you find yourself in Warrenton, Virginia around 8:30AM on June 29th, 2011, you’ll have the ability to bid on this British Racing Green cat – the starting bid is $7,200.
Thanks, Mike!
Ferrari California’s True Predecessor
By Gunnar Heinrich
ADMITTEDLY, yours has been on a Ferrari kick lately.
I could go on about how the elusive-to-the-press California is proving to be a cast back to more than one Ferrari in its transformational effect on the company… and so I will.
Considering, that the true forebear to the latest (but greatest?) generation Ferrari California is the Dino (less so the eponymous 250 and 365), it’s only right that we consider what the Ferrari-for-the-common-man meant in its day and how much that everyday Ferrari is now worth.
The mid-engined Dino came in three flavors over the course of eight years; the 206 GT, 246 GT/S, and the 308 GT4 ( we will leave the latter model, a boxy, Giugaro Esprit-esque, V8 powered product of the mid 70s for another discussion that will hopefully include Barbara Bach for some other day).
True, the new California is a front engined V8, but stay with me!
The US Auto mags pitted the six cylindered Dino squarely against the likes of Jaguar’s (by-then-ancient) E-Type and Mercedes’ (R107) SL-Class; prestigious cars to be sure – but hardly exotics as Ferraris had come to be known.
Today, the same is being said of the new California and that the SL is the likely target rival. While the new California will likely retail for a mere $100K+ it’s set to be a higher volume product than the old Dino. In truth, only 3,761 of the old 246 GTs were built.
We can expect that figure to be the California’s annual production in a few years time.
But on the topic of limited production cars costing over $100K…
What sold in the 70s for about $18K is now showing up at prestige classic car dealers and on eBay for around $150,000.
Which might beg the question for some buyers who could only afford one $100K+ splurge – which would it be: the new transformational classic or the old?
[Linked: Ferrari Dino | Ferrari Dino Listing @ F40 Motorsports]
This Week @ Coys: Jaguar D-Type XKSS
By Gunnar Heinrich
BEFORE the E-Type, there was the Jaguar D-Type. And during the D-Type years there was the XKSS.
“A lightly road-equipped D Type, complete with full windscreen, wipers, hood and rear luggage rack, produced to make use of the remaining D Type components at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory. After the disastrous fire that ripped through the factory in 1957, however, just 16 examples escaped unscathed, making the XKSS indisputably the rarest and most desirable of all Jaguar road cars,” stated Coys of Kensington.
Ah! A clue!
Generally, the British auto auctioneer is mum on the price of its cars (online) but buried deep within the explanatory text on this most splendid British racing or “Brewster” green Jag, Coys mentioned the average price of so rare a car to be around £2 million (currency watchers: that’s $3.92 million, €2.53 million, or 12.85 million Malaysian Ringgits).
FYI: This Jaguar bests the 300SL’s performance times by accelerating to sixty in 4.7 seconds and leaping on to a maximum speed beyond 170mph!
[Linked: Coys]
The Big Tease > Jaguar XF Production
(img: Victoria’s Secret)
There can be no doubt that a core ingredient to Formula Jaguar is sex. Appeal.
One former Jag owner and confirmed bachelor/playboy put it to me plainly, “I’ve had Bimmers, Vettes, Porsches, Benzes and none of them attracted women like my old XJS.”
But like many owners of British models yesteryear, his old V12 GT spent more days in ye olde shoppe than it did prowling the boulevards. Could it be that’s why his current voiture de choix wears the roundel badge?
History has both hurt and helped Jaguar sales. The cat owns a very sultry past – who can deny that the penultimate E-Type is one of automordom’s most seductive rides? And most of the current designs borrow heavily from that former mystique – which helped – for a while.
But then there’s that sobering cold shower period under British Leyland that left its haunting shadow through the mid-90s. Unreliable, unsexy, and badly engineered cars made for tough times for the marque. It’s a turn-off that lasted for years in during periods (like now) when Jaguar’s are proving reliable as daily transport.
Then the retro-craze hit in the late 90s and that’s where Jaguar fit right in. And then as soon as the fad came – it went – and the marque was once more looking down the barrel. The insipid Gorgeous ad campaign did nothing to assuage buyers otherwise.
And now Jaguar, after all the highs and lows, has one last hope – the XF. The XK has proven both sexy (to most) and popular (ditto), but it just isn’t selling in necessary volumes to carry the company.
Which means that everything rests on the XF – but even then it may be just too late. Time may have already passed Coventry by and Ford may yet resort to liquidating one of the best nameplates the world has ever known.
I doubt it will come to that, but the situation is as dire as ever. Which makes Jag’s latest marketing tactics all the more cheeky. The internet has been treated with a deluge of spy shots of XF mules in various test scenarios.
The question tingling the tongues of journalists, enthusiasts, and would-be buyers: How close will the production model be to the saucy concept?
They have our attention.
We’re not telling, says Jaguar. Smiling slyly…you’ll have to wait.
But the pressure’s building! How much longer must the agony of suspense last?
A moment or two more…
