1964 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight Comes to Project Motor Racing

16. June 2026

When the Prettiest Car in the World Went Bare-Knuckle Fighting

The Jaguar E-Type is beautiful. Drop-dead gorgeous, movie-star-level stunning. So beautiful that, when it was unveiled in 1961, Enzo Ferrari is said to have called it the most beautiful car ever made.

It looked like nothing else on the road. Long bonnet. Perfect proportions. Seamlessly shaped for artsy movies and beauty shots in exotic brochures.

But then someone at Jaguar decided pretty-boy looks weren’t enough. The E-Type needed to expand its portfolio into meatier roles. And that meant the prettiest car in the world needed to go fight it out in the merciless world of bare-knuckle prize fighting, otherwise known as 1960s GT racing.

Project “Special GT E-Type”

The E-Type was many things. A top-level racer, however, wasn’t one. Not yet anyway.

Jaguar’s evolution of the E-Type into a race car followed the standard process manufacturers have followed since the beginning of time: give the project a cool codename, then start stripping everything out.

The “Lightweight” E-Type was part of Jaguar’s Special GT E-Type project, which was intended to deliver 18 race cars. In the end, only 12 were built in period, which is exactly the sort of detail that makes collectors start breathing into paper bags.

The goal was simple: Make the E-Type meaner, leaner, and scarier.

Aluminium panels replaced steel. Weight was cut. And then cut some more. Comfort became optional, then fictional. Lightweight side windows replaced heavier glass. Under the bonnet sat a race-developed 3.8L straight-six, with cars using competition hardware including dry-sump lubrication, fuel injection (on certain versions), and enough power to make the lightweight body feel properly alive.

The result? The most beautiful car in the world. With scars. And wearing jeans to Kensington soirées.

On track, the Lightweight was Jaguar’s answer to the increasingly serious—and increasingly prestigious—GT fights of the early ’60s, when “win on Sunday” really could still convert to “sell on Monday”.

Briggs Cunningham took the E-Type to Le Mans. Others went hunting in Europe, America, and Australia. These were cars built for privateers, hard circuits, long straights, and drivers who understood that an elegant shape could still punch. And the Lightweight knew how to fight, though it never quite became the giant-killer Jaguar might have hoped for at the very top level.

But in the end, that’s also the charm.

In Project Motor Racing, the 1964 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight brings that same contradiction with it. It looks graceful. But it’s always a willing to get its elbows out.

This is not a modern GT car with ABS and traction control. This is old-school GT racing: weight transfer, throttle shenanigans, mechanical grip—though grip may be slightly overstating it—and the constant suspicion that the rear end is considering a contentious divorce from the rest of the car.

Drive it properly and it flows. Get greedy, and it reminds you that beauty never forgives transgression. It’s not the fastest car in class. But you’re never going to look better than in a four-wheel drift in an E-Type Jag.

Yours to drive as part of the GT Icons Pack coming to Project Motor Racing June 23rd. Enjoy.

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