Talking Motors: We can build our Jaguar E-type dreams into reality

If you were asked what car you'd like, money no object, practicality no object, you'd say you'd like a Jaguar E-type.
The iconic Jaguar E-type, the car of our dreamsThe iconic Jaguar E-type, the car of our dreams
The iconic Jaguar E-type, the car of our dreams

And you’d be right to.

Malcolm Sayers’ design is still rightly considered by many to have resulted in the most beautiful car ever made, and when it was revealed in March 1961, even Enzo Ferrari called it exactly that. Praise indeed.

It was revolutionary in more than just looks. It was claimed it could do 150, a lot of customers tried and reported they couldn’t reach it. But it could reach 0-60 before the clock had reached seven seconds, had disc brakes (it needed them!) and a monocoque construction.

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But there’s not even any need to worry about the figures to be impressed – 3.4 litre straight six producing 261 bhp, in case you were wondering.

Just listen. The noise is enough to induce a stupid involuntary smile not seen since eye contact with a first crush.

I’ve sat in an E-type once, at a car show, and had to be dragged out at closing time.

But there’s a catch. A big one.

At £2,250 when launched, about £38,000 in today’s money, the E-type wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t stupidly unattainable either when you think about it. Ask yourself what a new BMW or a Range Rover costs.

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But now prices are stupid. A tatty late example of an E-type is comfortably in the region of two house deposits. A 1965 example was recently found in a barn covered in decades of dust and gunk, it hasn’t run for 15 years and will fetch between £35,000 and £45,000.

Want a nice one? Have you got £250,000-plus?

Owing an E-type is consigned to that place in your head reserved for nice thoughts for most of us. And it’s hugely annoying we didn’t see the sharp rise in value coming at the end of the last century. I recently found a magazine of my dad’s from the ’80s with an E-type for sale in it for £700. Time machine please.

But it’s not all bad news. Because we might all yet still be able to afford one. In Lego.

Lego has an ideas section on its website, and one genius by the name of Ozzyeatingbats has proposed the company do us an E-type.

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You’ll have noticed Lego already do a Mini, a VW T1 Camper and Caterham 7, and if you’re like me and you’ve dragged a younger sibling into a Lego store for an excuse to play with one you’ll know they are good.

And if this E-type makes it into production, it looks as if that trend will continue.

Pictures on the proposal detail a bonnet that opens to reveal the six-cylinder engine, the twin exhaust pipes in the middle and an opening boot. The only thing that’s wrong is that it’s a left-hand drive model.

The set, as it is now, contains 1,664 pieces, so if you need a youngster as an excuse to buy one, at least you’ll also have an excuse to help out/take over the build.

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But before we get to that point, the bid needs to reach 10,000 supporters before Lego will have a look.

The good news is 4,754 people have clicked their support, and there is another 565 days left for it to reach the magic number. You can see the project, and register your support, at ideas.lego.com/projects/154276

So go on, help make our E-type dreams a reality.

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