Sacrilegious?: Stretching a Jaguar E-Type sports car

[Jaguar Owners Club]

DRIVE ON

Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY6:04 a.m. EST November 12, 2013

(Photo: CMC)

Is it possible to make one of the best historic sports car that Jaguar ever built even better?

A customizing outfit in the United Kingdom will soon find out when it sees the reaction to the extra four inches that it inserted in the body of a 1968 Jaguar E-Type.

Purists may condemn the stretch job as sacrilegious. But the insults don't end there. They are sure to be even more inflamed by the matching trailer. It's the back end of another E-Type.

Classic Motor Cars Limited of Bridgnorth says it undertook the job on the left-hand-drive E-Type series 1 4.2 roadster at the request of its American owner.

CMC says the stretched E-Type is how the car should have been designed in the first place.

The stretched E-Type comes with a matching trailer(Photo: CMC)

 

"This is the E-Type that Jaguar Cars should have built," says Nick Goldthorp, Managing Director of CMC, in a statement. "The extra space makes all the difference and actually alters the whole attitude of the car."

He says it drives better as a result. But it wasn't driving characteristics that drove the decision, but rather interior space. The owner wanted the legroom of Series 3 V-12 E-Type, but the look of the Series 1.

With the stretch job, the owner not only gets the extra length, plus an extra inch over the V-12, but more than extra inch of headroom as well, CMC says.