Family Ties

Despite the thirty years that separate the E-type 2+2 Series 1 from the XK8 they have many similarities – such as being fun and the added practicality of four seats to attract the family man. We test 4.2-litre versions of both cars back-to-back.

- Paul Walton

THE FORMER baseball player Chili Davis once said, “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.” I know exactly what he means. I might be 43 but I still feel like the same, stupid kid I was when I was 23, except now I have a mortgage, grey hairs and two boys. The latter mean I can no longer have the simple two seater sports car I always dreamed off, but (thankfully) my XK8 solves this by offering four seats – so I can still have fun AND be a responsible grown-up at the same time (well, some of the time).

This was the thinking behind the E-type 2+2 Series 1. Debuting in 1966, five years after the two-seat fixed head coupe and open two-seater, this four seat version of Jaguar’s iconic sports car allowed the model’s original buyers, who had themselves moved on and no doubt produced offspring, to carry on driving an E-type. And, as we’ll discover, it was a large and lucrative market, one that would heavily influence Jaguar’s sports cars over the following 40 years.

That the XK8’s shape is clearly influenced by the E-type links these two cars spiritually, if not by immediate continuity. Although they hail from two different eras of Jaguar’s history, I’m comparing a 4.2-litre example of both to look for other similarities.