When it comes to Jaguar’s real estate in most people’s brains, the iconic E-Type usually has the biggest, most showy features. But for those in the know, there is an older area so full of charm and motorsport history and smooth curves of metal that is worth a visit: the C-Type. Jaguar just announced it will happen to build new, old C types as part of their follow-up program. Though I’ll never be rich enough to pay for one I’ve been in a C-Type for some time and can honestly say absolutely deserve this rebirth.
The original C-Types were built for racing between 1951 and 1953, and Malcolm Sayer’s intuitive, if perhaps not mathematically verifiable, aerodynamic shape is simply an absolute wonder of what makes mid-century British racing cars so great.
It’s a curvy, feline little fast tub of a car, something you want to go over with your hands until the people around you start to feel really uncomfortable and someone who still cares about you whispers that you might have to already cooling down.
The car is clearly a racing machine, and the interior definitely reflects that; it is really a no-nonsense machine, completely bare metal and visible parts, and you can see it in Jaguar’s online configurator for the cars that while you choose your leather upholstery color, it’s still a no-bullshit experience:
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These new cars from Continuation are built from archived blueprints and three-dimensional scans of leftover cars, and although the use modern techniques and methods and tolerances and all are to a large extent the original car.
Jaguar also seems to be pulling out all the stops with colors, which is great:
The engine is cheerfully old-school too: it’s a 220-horsepower, 3.4-liter inline-six with triple Weber 40DCO3 carbohydrates. Carburettors! In a car built in 2021! Hot damn!
The C-Type was an early user of disc brakes so these will have these and, unlike the original cars, these will feature the optional ‘FIA Approved Harness Retention System’ which is a huge step up from the one that I rode in the Mille Miglia a few years ago, when the owner of the car suggested that I didn’t even bother about the lap belts, thinking it would be a better plan to just get thrown out of the car.
You can even specify number rounds, which makes sense as most of these are likely to be purchased for track use and qualify for most historic race and track events.
Jaguar hasn’t released a price yet, but other Jaguar Continuation series cars typically sell for between one and three million dollars, which is an awful lot of dollars. If you’re stuffed up and looking for some insanely impractical car, why not one of these? Buy something with carburettor!
If like most of us you’re not loaded, the online configurator is freeat least.