E-Type Jaguar - the Nation's Favourite Sports Car
In a far from surprising result, the E-Type Jaguar has been voted Britain’s favourite sports car of all time.
You may remember we reported a few weeks back that the organisers of the Silverstone Classic were running a poll to find out the nation’s favourite sports car of all time.
The ‘nominees’ left a little to be desired, with some of the greatest sports cars ever built conspicuously missing from the list. But there were a few goodies from which to choose, and a few that should never have made the list in the first place.
Cars like the TVR Griffith supplanted stuff that should have been there, but one car shone out like a winner in the making – the E-Type Jaguar – in no small part because it’s everywhere at the moment in its 50th anniversary year.
But the E-Type really does deserve the accolade of ‘Best British Sports Car of all Time’ simply for its looks alone. Any car that can elicit from the notoriously curmudgeonly Enzo Ferrari the accolade of ‘Most Beautiful car ever made’ deserves to win any car competition. The fact the E-Type was – and still is – a very good car is just a bonus.
So, as we predicted, the E-Type won the poll, garnering twenty-five per cent of the 3,000 online votes in the process. Second spot went to the Morgan Plus 8 and third to the TVR Griffith. Which may say more about the age of those who voted than anything else. A criticism we can perhaps level at the panel who chose the original list of 15 cars.
But no matter, the only car that could have won did, Silverstone Classic got some PR and, just as with every other ‘Top’ anything list, no two people will ever agree completely so it stoked debate – which is always fun.
What was missing from the list in your view? Should the E-Type have won? Let us know in the comments.
Top 10 British Sports Cars – the result
1: Jaguar E-type | 24.3%
2: Morgan Plus 8 | 16.3%
3: TVR Griffith | 12.0%
4: AC Cobra | 7.4%
5: Aston Martin DB5 | 7.2%
6: Lotus 7 | 7.1%
7: Austin Healey 3000 | 6.0%
8: Jaguar XK 120 | 5.6%
9: Lotus Elan | 4.1%
10: MGB | 2.5%
E-Type Jaguar Photo Gallery
(38 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)
Chuck Pineda says
Take a good look at U-tube’s 2011 Francorchamp sixties endurance video and you will see who was the real King of the A Production Class in the middle sixties, the Griffith 400s.
You’ll see the Griffith of Sean and Michael McInerney take on the best of Shelbys Cobras and put them to shame. At about 6:12-16 on the bottom scale you’ll see the Griffith, car 54/light blue, pass the fastest of all the Cobras which was driven by Han Hugenholtz and David Hart/
The Griffith also posted the fastest lap time of 2:50.835 compared to the 2:52.459 of the fastest Cobra. May I add, that the fastest Cobra had after market hardtops. They didn’t come with hardtops in 1963! Regular Cobras without hardtops fell far behind.
In my opinion, the English designer of the Grantura Mark 3 body style used in the production of the Griffith 400 is a designer that deserves recognition for the great automobile lines and curves that allow the Griffith 400s to achieve high speeds by giving it a natural/original Kamm effect.
My hat is off to the persons who voted for the TVR Griffith. I contemplate that it was a 400.
My best,
Chuck
Dteamer says
No Bristol? No Fraser Nash? A list put together by ignorant amateurs.
Oblivious says
McLaren F1. What more needs saying?
PhilipJH says
Yes, the E-Type should have won. But the XK120 in 8th? And where is the Jensen Interceptor. It’s as much a sports car as the DB5. And the DB6 was a better car than the DB5 and the DB4 was the quantum leap.
Almost completely wrong!!