Happy 60th: Jaguar Classic is Making Six Matched Pairs of E-Types

The E-type 60 Collection celebrates two cars which made a mad dash to Switzerland, and introduced an icon.

When the E-Type was introduced in Geneva in 1961, the models which wowed audiences didn’t arrive there on anything as pedestrian as a transport truck. Nope. The story is much better than that.

Public relations chief Bob Berry and development driver Norman Dewis drove them straight from the factory to the Swiss financial hub at hyper-legal speeds. It’s the kind of stunt an automaker would never pull today, and on the remote chance a company did direct its employees to break traffic laws in multiple countries? The public would never know. But 60 years ago, things were different. Here’s the official description of the pre-unveiling road trips from Jaguar:

An Opalescent Gunmetal Grey 3.8-liter Fixed-Head Coupe registered ‘9600 HP’ was one of the first two E-type cars unveiled to specially-invited guests at the Parc des Eaux Vives. Driven ‘flat out’ to Switzerland from Coventry the night before the launch, public relations manager Bob Berry arrived with minutes to spare for demonstration drives.

With an outstanding reaction to the E-type resulting in overwhelming demand for drives with Berry, legendary Jaguar Test and Development Engineer Norman Dewis was told to ‘drop everything’ and drive a British Racing Green 3.8-liter roadster registered ‘77 RW’ overnight from Coventry to Geneva.

Pretty cool, right? So to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic machine, Jaguar Classic is honoring the models which made that fateful journey with a series of six matched sets of 1960s E-Types. Dubbed the E-type 60 Collection, each pair will include a coupe and a drophead.