Car 1961 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Roadster
Drive Southern Downs, Queensland
Words/Photos Barry Green
It is well recordedthat Jaguar’s E-Type screams speed from every lascivious curve, starting with fared-in headlights and reaching to twin upswept tailpipes.
This writer won’t argue, particularly after a country road drive one sunny, blue-sky day in what was not ‘just’ any E-Type, but one of the first two to come to Australia.
Resplendent in a fetching livery of Cream body with Biscuit trim and fawn hood, chassis #850086 created enormous interest in Melbourne upon its arrival back in 1961 at Bryson Industries, the Australian distributors. (Being among just 92 out of 943 right-hand-drive 3.8 Roadsters to be fitted with outside bonnet latches added further to its provenance).
No surprise that hardly had it hit the showroom floor than it was snapped up by acclaimed modernist architect Acheson Best Overend. For many years now, this very significant vehicle has been owned and driven with no small amount of affection and pride by an enthusiast of the highest order, one Steve Moulder.
But let’s zone in on the day of my drive, in 1997, and that very same car is Carmen Red with black trim and hood, wears bigger and broader boots (resulting in flared guards) and sports a number of mods including D-Type profile cams and high-compression pistons.
Here’s how it shook out…
Entering the cockpit is a case of opening the tiny door and with one hand on the three-quarter section, sliding into the low, lean bucket seat. Once ensconced, it’s a cosy fit without, I suspect, being claustrophobic once the hood is up.
The large (by modern standards) wood-rimmed wheel is overtly raked and the pedals, while well-weighted and spaced, feel slightly offset. The aviation-style Smiths instrument cluster is a handsome touch, as is the aluminium panelling down the centre console.
Slim A-pillars and upright windscreen ensure visibility straight-ahead is unimpaired. The most overpowering impression, though, is the length of that gorgeous, sculpted steel bonnet – it goes on forever, or so it seems.
With such impressive length to boast, I’m instantly motivated to seek out the quiet of the countryside, point and squirt. And while they say it is not size that counts, the 3.8-litre DOHC straight-six – what with having a reputed 265bhp (198kW) on tap standard – is better hung than most classics.
Turning the key and pressing the starter button in unison produces a rumbly tick-over. Nice. The clutch is light (surprise), but the 4-speed, tri-synchro Moss box, while positive, gives the impression it doesn’t like being rushed. Being devoid of synchro on 1st (very much standard for the era), you really need to double declutch, or pause one-two, to ensure a clean shift.
Once up to speed, the rack and pinion steering proves to be direct, but like any car sans power assistance, and with wider than normal wheels and rubber to match, is heavy.
The road, for the most part, runs straight and true, so offers little opportunity to fling – or try to – the E-Type around. But there’s enough variation to reveal the competence of the twin-coil independent rear suspension, a sophisticated unit compared with the live-axle, leaf spring offering of others.
The ride is supple and smooth, but the first crease in the patchwork back block road surface sees the underside of those curvaceous upswept pipes bottoming out disconcertingly. Ouch!
The brakes, although four-wheel discs, really do belong to an earlier generation, it should be said, but even with that in mind, I find the challenge of rolling the throttle irresistible. Into 3rd up to about 5500rpm, then up-change crisply, one-two, to 4th.
The effortless surge surely encapsulates in an instant just how Jaguar rewrote the performance books with the E-Type – 0-60mph (100km/h) in 6.7sec. and top end of 150mph (240km/h), as opposed to 10.0sec. and 126mph (203km/h) for its predecessor, the XK120.
That said, there’s a convincing impression of there being no need to shuffle up and down the gears to get the best out of the E-Type. Rather, just hold a gear longer than you would in most other cars and ride the copious torque.
The Back Story
Some 30 years earlier, in the small town where I grew up, a local mechanical engineer owned an E-Type coupe in (I think) Opalescent silver grey.
Some Saturday afternoons, he would drive it in to play lawn bowls. When he did, I would loiter nearby on my ‘pushie’ and observe and study that most marvellous thing for hours.
Upon his leaving, I would savour the sight of the late afternoon sunlight glinting off the chromed spoke wheels and sound of rich note burbling from the gorgeous, chromed twin pipes. I vowed, one day, somehow, that it would be me behind the wheel of an E-Type.
It took three decades in coming, my drive of what Enzo called ‘the most beautiful car in the world’, but worth every minute of wait.
Car specs
Basic price new: £UK2196
Engine: 3.8-litre DOHC inline 6-cyl
Power: 198kW+ (265bhp+) @ 5500rpm
Torque: 353Nm+ (260lb/ft+) @ 4000rpm
Transmission: 4-spd manual
Weight: 1275kg (2810lb)
Drive: Rear-wheel
0-60mph: 6.7sec.
But wait, that’s not all
In 2013, I got to finally slip behind the wheel of a second E-Type, being a 1972 Series 3 V12 Roadster bedecked in Old English White and black leather interior.
The drive of this beauty, along with four other highly aspirational classics on the Break for the Border Rally over roads that interlock the English/Welsh countryside, is a story in itself – a tome soon to appear on seniordriver.au under the title of ‘Welsh Rarebits’. Look out for it.
Barry Green will be well-known to many of you and a welcome discovery for those of you who haven’t been reading his words for years.
He has had an illustrious five-decade-long career writing for such titles as Racing Car News, Sports Car World as well as holding professional journalist roles with Australian Provincial Newspapers and News Limited and motoring writer and editor of the RACQ’s Road Ahead magazine. Along the way he found time to write and self-publish a trilogy of retro motor sport narratives – Driven to Succeed (the biography of Alec Mildren), Longford: Fast Track Back and Glory Days (the Albert Park story from 1953 to 1958).
Now you can revel in his recollections of more than 80 drives of an eclectic mix of machinery on some of the world’s finest roads and racing circuits.