Jaguar was already a force to be reckoned by 1961; the glamorous XK120 had stunned the world at its 1948 Earls Court Motor Show debut. The C-Type and D-type sports racers scored five Le Mans victories in the 1950s, and the 1957 XKSS hinted at the future.

But when Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis drove the new E-Type Coupé from London to the 1961 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, the audience gasped. Dewis was so busy giving rides that Sir William Lyons reportedly ordered another car brought from London for display.

The E-Type was also the first road-going Jaguar not designed by Lyons. Aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer got to reinterpret his D-type ideas, with an all-new monocoque construction, tilt nose, fully independent suspension and four-wheel disc brakes.

This car was auctioned off by RM Auctions in August 2009 at the Portola Hotel & Spa and Monterey Conference Center, Monterey, California, in March of 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Florida, in October of 2011 at the Battersea Evolution, London and in March of 2012 at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Florida.

265 hp, 4,235 cc DOHC six-cylinder engine, three SU carburettors, four-speed manual gearbox, independent front suspension with double wishbones, torsion bars and sway bar, independent rear suspension with coil springs, double wishbones and sway bar, four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes. Wheelbase: 2,438 mm.

Source: RM Auctions