As for Jaguar’s real estate in the minds of most people, the iconic E-type tends to have the largest, most beautiful properties. But for those who know, there is an older area that is so chock-full of charm and motorsport history and flowing metal curves worth visiting: the C-Type. Jaguar has just announced that it will do so build new, old C-types as part of their ongoing program. Although I’ll never be rich enough to afford one, I spent some time in a C-type and can honestly say absolutely deserves this rebirth.
The original C-Types were built for racing between 1951 and 1953, and the intuitive, perhaps not mathematically provable aerodynamic form of Malcolm Sayer, is just an absolute marvel of what made British racing cars so amazing in the middle of the century. .
It’s a crooked, feline, quick bath of a car, the kind of thing you want to hold your hands on until people around you feel really uncomfortable and someone who still cares about you whispers that you might need to cool it down.
The car is clearly a machine to chase, and the interior absolutely reflects this; it is a very easy machine, all bare metal and exposed parts, and you can see in Jaguar’s online car configurator that even though you choose the color of leather upholstery, it is still an unobstructed experience:
G / O Media can get a commission
These new continuation cars are built from archived blueprints and three-dimensional scans of surviving cars, and while it uses modern techniques and methods and tolerances, and all this, is the original car.
Jaguar also seems to work with colors, which is great:
The engine is also cheerful on the old school: it is a 220 hp, 3.4 liter inline six with triple Weber 40DCO3 carbohydrates. Carburetors! In a car built in 2021! Hot die!
The C-Type was an early adopter of disc brakes, so it will have the, and unlike the original cars, it will have an optional ‘FIA-approved harness retention system’, which is a big step up from the one I drove in the Mille Miglia a few years ago, when the owner of the car suggested that I should not even bother with the lap belts, because he thinks it’s just a better plan to just throw out the car.
You can even specify number rounds, which makes sense, as most of these are likely to be purchased for track use and are eligible for most historic race and track events.
Jaguar has not yet given a price, but other Jaguar Continuation series cars usually sell for between one and three million dollars, which is a lot of money. If you are loaded and want to buy some kind of trivial car, why not one of them? Get yourself something carburetor!
If you’re not loaded like most of us, the online configurator is free, at least.