Enzo Ferrari quoted, “The most beautiful car ever made” at the Geneva Motor Show, in Switzerland in March 1961 when the Jaguar XKE was firstly unveiled to the public.

After a quote like this from a notorious and rival automaker, the Coventry factory knew they were in good for the money. The Jaguar XKE would soon enough have its place guaranteed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well.

This art on wheels was already an icon before its production demise in 1974 and will always be one of the top sports cars ever made to come to mind whenever famous sports cars are mentioned. The Jaguar XKE was a fast car with a very impressive performance, and price wise accessible. At the time it was only half the price in comparison with the same type of cars from other makes such as Aston Martins, Ferraris and Mercedes that it was soon to be nicknamed the “poor man’s Ferrari”. New Jaguar XKE wanna be owners didn´t mind, but they knew there where countless orders to be filled and delivery of the new Jaguar XKE took months of waiting.

Malcolm Sayer as an aircraft engineer, applied aerodynamic principles in its design and its monocoque body assembly just like aircraft were being built at the time.

The body was inspired on the D-type competition model that won a few races at the Le Mans and the engine successor of the XK150 models.

Designed with a long engine hood to fit its XK engine, this stylishly fluent aerodynamic lined car, still today is appreciated wherever it cruises.

The fitted engine, a XK 3.8 liter (3781cc), 6 cylinder in-line with semi-split skirt pistons, double overhead camshaft with 12 valves, triple SU carburetors delivering 265 hp at 5.400 rpm.

Excellent performance for the time, the jaguar XKE acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h was clocked at 7.1 seconds and with a top speed of just over 240 km/h. For braking power unventilated four discs installed, two in the front and the two rear ones were inner brakes next to the differential, and these brakes soon enough were proved not to be enough braking power.

The Jaguar XKE was assembled with an innovative monocoque body for the first time in auto history and with a tubular front frame that carries the engine. Its new and again innovative independent rear suspension gave the Jaguar XKE excellent handling performance against other sports cars at the time.

Sporty centre-locking chromed spoke wheels where fixed and hub caps to hold the wheels with two built in knocking “ears” for tire removal or tightening.

The Moss 4 speed plus reverse gearbox in the Jaguar XKE Series 1 has an unsynchronized first gear that needs a bit of fiddling in engaging. The Series 1 Jaguar XKE has external engine hood locks that soon were removed and from this time on operated from interior. The flat-floor underneath the pedals gave limited and cramped foot room, later cars had split-level sunk floor that increased space. Toggle switches and Smiths instruments embedded in sheet aluminum with a raised dot finish gave a great deal of information about the engine and for steering, it was fitted with a classical sporting wood wheel.

The Series 1 Jaguar XKE weight to horsepower ratio was so massive that if you were traveling on a highway at 150km/h on 4^th gear and suddenly slammed the accelerator to the floor you would feel the long engine hood just rise as if it wants to jump out like a cat and slowly level off.

The XK 3.8 engine with its rounded and polished camshaft covers is the most classical of all and it impressingly hums at low revs and sounds like a true cat at high revs. Production of the Jaguar XKE sadly came to an end in 1974.