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E-type Jag celebrates 50 years


Unassisted by Botox and scalpels, Jaguar's ageless icon, the E-Type, last week had its 50th anniversary of its debut.  In the cool halls of the Geneva motor show in the winter of 1961, Jaguar heated debate about the car as a work of art. And won.

Even Enzo Ferrari was impressed, coining it "beautiful".  And the remarkable thing is that the car that turned the world's head in 1961 is still doing it today.

As ageless and as able as the 1961 car is its test driver.  Norman Dewis, now aged 90 and sharp as a Jaguar body crease, remembers clearly his task 50 years ago to get the car from Coventry to the Geneva show.

Jaguar already had one car at the Geneva show but Jaguar had underestimated the sensation the car was causing ahead of the show opening.  It needed another car.

Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons called on Dewis - who was working on brake testing at the MIRA proving ground in Warwickshire - to get an extra car to Geneva.  Dewis, speaking at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, told me he just made the 10pm Dover-Ostend ferry.

After a three hour crossing, he drove through the night to arrive just before 10am at the Geneva show.  Dewis, who joined Jaguar 10 years earlier as a development driver, remembers the road and the drive and the sensation of the car in his palms.

Standing next to the exact car he drove 50 years ago on that express run from England, Dewis says "It is such a lovely car."  "It was like no other - is like no other. It's an icon.

"You can park this in the street today and people - people who aren't the least bit interested in cars - will come up and look and smile. You can't even get that with car they make today."

Dewis clearly enjoyed the spirited drive on quiet, open roads and with 260hp (194kW) admits to testing its limits.  "I broke a few speed limits," he says with a smile.

"The average was 68mph (109km/h) and had only one stop. I'm not saying how fast it went."  He says that on his arrival, William Lyons walked over, said "Well done Dewis, I thought you'd do it" and walked off again.  In its 50th year, the E-Type now starts a packed program of celebrations.

THINGS ABOUT THE LETTER 'E'

Jaguar launched the E-Type 10 years after the sensation of the XK120.  The vehicle shown here, which appeared on the stand at the former Palais, now belongs to a Swiss collector who has fully restored it to its original condition.

The E-Type used the race-only D-Type's central steel monocoque with a separate subframe for the engine and front suspension.  Original cars had a 3.8-litre twin-cam six-cylinder engine, non-synchro four-speed gearbox and rear inboard disc brakes - the latter from the D-Type.

As Jaguar's chief development test engineer, Norman Dewis spent 36 years deciding how the company's cars should feel to drive.  Dewis joined Jaguar in 1951 to set up a testing department. He developed more than 600 testing procedures.

Dewis set a speed record with the D-Type in 1953 and drove in both the Mille Miglia rally in Italy in 1952 and at Le Mans in 1955.  He was the key developer of the disc brake with Dunlop - an innovation that has saved countless lives over the years.

Dewis drove Jaguar's second E-Type concept, E2A, which, unlike the previous E1A was constructed from a steel chassis and used an aluminium body.