Hello, I Love You: Eagle E-Type Speedster
Eagle E-type Speedster - Click above for high-res image gallery
Oh, joy – another car to add to our never ending bucket list. Your eyes are drooling over the Eagle E-type Speedster. Starting with a plain old Jaguar E-type and a very wealthy client, Jag specialist Eagle shot for the moon and landed in the Sea of Automotive Tranquility. Okay, it's a lousy metaphor, but just look at this beautiful bloody thing! We're out of superlatives, and we haven't even got to the really good stuff. Let's start with the engine. Buried under that gorgeous bonnet is a fully built 4.7-liter straight-six that makes 300 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque. Not impressive by 2009 standards until you consider a few facts. First, all that torque shows up at 1,750 rpm. Second, the E-type Speedster weighs just a dumbbell over 2,400 pounds (2,420 to be exact). That's ten pounds more than a brand new Mazda MX-5 Miata, but the Eagle has fully twice the power. As such, zero sixty happens in less than five seconds and the top speed is 175 mph.
Then there's the body. Most noticable at first glance is the chopped windscreen. Look a little harder and you'll notice the "hidden" A-pillars. Both the sills and the floor pan were lowered, which is why the bloke up top looks so teeny. Not only did Eagle extend the track of the rear wheels, but the further flared the body's already unrealistically butch haunches. They even narrowed the license plate opening. Then there's the lusty cockpit where the rear deck extends all the way into the passenger compartment creating a Corvette-like central waterfall. And look at the leather they used! In case you're wondering, the hand brake is concealed under the center panel. Then you got the all-aluminum dash, the spectacular wire-wheels complete with three-spoke spinners – honestly, the goodness of the Eagle E-type Speedster never ends.
Gallery: Eagle E-type Speedster
[Source: EagleGB via CAR]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chad 12:36PM (7/28/2009)
Gorgeous!
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Mike 2:52PM (7/28/2009)
That is what Jag should have been building for years...
salmanorguk 12:37PM (7/28/2009)
ive never really liked the e-type or the db5 (although i have for some reason the db4 zagato), blame my age im only 22. but this..oh my god, this is beautiful.
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13enS 12:41PM (7/28/2009)
...can I shag it?
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Tony 12:39PM (7/28/2009)
Normally I am not a fan of older cars but this thing is beautiful.
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st3ph3n 12:48PM (7/28/2009)
I'll be bold and say - I don't like it. It's proportions look wrong. The chopped windscreen is hideous. I just don't see the point.
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Alex 1:35PM (7/28/2009)
While I don't dislike it all, I do take issue with chopping up a car like the E-Type. Not only was Malcolm Sayer's design already beautiful, but the car is not exactly commonplace. That is one more classic taken off the road. I realize that we are not talking super rare numbers like a D-Type, but all the same.
chuck goolsbee 2:56PM (7/28/2009)
Alex there were 72,515 E-types built between '61 & '74, with an estimated 35,000-55,000 of them remaining, so unlike the C-type (55 cars), D-type (71 cars), XKSS (16 cars), and Lightweight E-type (12 cars), it isn't really a huge impact to the ecosystem/market to chop a handful (which is realistically all that will be made) of E-types to produce these resto-mods. In reality I bet little beyond the donor cars' dataplate and firewall are used to build these anyway, and those are likley pulled from the "too far gone to save" category of remaining cars.
(data pulled from: http://www.xkedata.com/stats/ )
--chuck
LX builder 12:52PM (7/28/2009)
WOW! is that ever beautiful... sex on wheels that is... sex on wheels.
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Stumpy 12:52PM (7/28/2009)
I think it is amazing. Wow.
(Though I would like the shifter a little farther back).
..
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anonymous j 1:00PM (7/28/2009)
from the side it kind of looks like a red oscar mayer weiner car without the bun
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Epyx 1:01PM (7/28/2009)
Sweet ride. I love the modern revision of classics. I always enjoy looking at the works of Chip Foose when he does this with the American classics.
PS:
Jonny,
How much more did AB have to pay to get you! Your writing is a very refreshing change for the better around here.
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Edsel 1:05PM (7/28/2009)
This is fabulous! The designer/architect of this project is an artist. I've witnessed all sorts of E Type abominations over the last 40 years and this is the first one-off that I would park in my garage. I owned a 69 E Type and they were torque machines of their day. The 4.2 liter engine kept pulling well after 70 mph.
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tommy 1:06PM (7/28/2009)
175 MPH on 300 HP NOPE.
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Kelah 2:02PM (7/28/2009)
Yeah I think you are correct. I came out with a drag coefficient of 0.21 in order to acheive this velocity with this much HP. Just by looking at the car with no wind tunnel testing to prove or disprove I would guess the CD is closer to .33 therefore 175 does not seem possible
BoxerFanatic 1:20PM (7/28/2009)
Needs ONLY the chrome bumper-ettes, and subtle grille mesh back. It looks bloody fantastic, but almost too much chrome delete.
Then again, I would use cast or forged wheels, rather than real-wires, on a modern resto-mod like this.
I would also go with side-draft weber-like individual throttle-body fuel injection, rather than triple SUs.
But this is bloody fantastic, really.
Ecurie Ecosse Blue and titanium white chevron-stripe, with dove-grey leather for me, please. :D
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jv2k 1:25PM (7/28/2009)
340lb/ft come by just tapping the gas pedal? Awesome.
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Kaveh 1:58PM (7/28/2009)
So sexy
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Shiftright 1:53PM (7/28/2009)
Shwing!!!!...Now that's what I call a Shaguar!....
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skant 2:03PM (7/28/2009)
I want side mirrors
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