On March 11, 2018, the 23rd annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will celebrate and honor the British icon that changed the world of sports cars forever. A full class of Jaguar XKEs will take to “The Amelia’s” field nearly six decades after the XKE’s glamorous public debut by Jaguar founder and Chairman Sir William Lyons at the Hotel du Parc des Eaux-Vives on Lake Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Jaguar unleashed its new E-Type upon an unsuspecting world on March 15, 1961, an engineering, marketing and design masterpiece. The E-Type, named XKE in America, was at least one full design cycle ahead of the other glamorous players in the premium high performance grand touring category. No less than Enzo Ferrari declared it “the most beautiful car ever made,” and in 1996, The Museum of Modern Art added an E-Type roadster to its permanent collection \u2014 only the second automobile ever installed in the prestigious and highly selective Manhattan institution.<\/p>\n
The XKE is a pure blood descendant of Jaguar’s three-time Le Mans winner, the legendary D-Type. The potent D-Type’s design DNA flows through the svelte contours of the XKE courtesy of Malcolm Sayer, the aerodynamicist who also drew the sublime shapes of the Le Mans-winning C-and D-Types. Even today, the E-Type’s silhouette, born in the 180 mph cauldron of Le Mans during the \u201950s, looks fresh and modern.<\/p>\n