1960 Jaguar E2A Le Mans Sports Racer

It was left in a corner to be junked, but Guy Griffiths, the father of vintage racing everywhere, talked the factory into selling it to him

by Thor Thorson

By 1960, Jaguar had won the world’s most prestigious race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, five times—twice with its original competition-tailored C-type and three times with the tail-finned D-type. At that juncture, company head Sir William Lyons decreed that it was time for this sporting pedigree to benefit production with an all-new semi-monocoque design, which was to emerge in 1961 as the E-type. One prototype for this model—the “missing link” between D-type and E-type—was “E2A,” a fuel- injected 3-liter sports racing two-seater that was to be raced by American sportsman Briggs Cunningham’s team at Le Mans in 1960. The new “E2A” was to test several features of the forthcoming E-type, not least its independent rear suspension system in place of the live-axle of both the C- and D-type designs. Visually, the new car’s contemporary tail-finned rear bodywork recalled the charismatic D-type, while its handsomely proportioned one-piece forward bodywork presaged...