With the 2011 Geneva Motor Show just around the corner, it can only mean one thing: the 50th anniversary of the legendary Jaguar E-Type. Yes, it was at Geneva in 1961 that the Midland firm took the wraps off its eagerly awaited new sports car. And, not surprisingly, Jaguar will be celebrating in style throughout this year.

The company will be marking the E-Type’s anniversary at high-profile motoring events, kicking off – of course – with the Geneva Motor Show in March, followed later in the year by Goodwood’s Revival and Festival of Speed, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Nurburgring Old Timer Grand Prix, the Silverstone Classic, as well as a host of Jaguar customer and dealer events worldwide.

The now iconic E-Type set new standards in car design and performance when it was launched in 1961, transforming Jaguar’s image – and sales figures – in the process. Celebrity E-Type owners over the years included George Best, Brigitte Bardot, Tony Curtis and Steve McQueen, the car becoming as synonymous with the Swinging Sixties as the Beatles and the mini skirt.
‘It is impossible to overstate the impact the E-Type had when it was unveiled in 1961,’ explained Ian Callum, Jaguar’s current design director. ‘Here was a car that encapsulated the spirit of the revolutionary era it came to symbolise. The E-Type is a design that even today continues to inform the work we do in styling the Jaguars of the future.’

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