Britain has made some dominant race cars over the
years, but few could hold a candle to the Lightweight E-Type – a car so
legendary that decades later, Jaguar couldn't help but complete the original
production run.
The six continuation examples and the original
twelve bring the total up to eighteen of these “GTO killers” that were known to
beat the legendary Ferraris around most tracks. The example you see here is
quite possibly the most exceptional, and now it's going up for auction.
Chassis number S850664 was campaigned at Le Mans in
1963 on Jaguar's behalf by the legendary American racer, constructor, and team
owner Briggs Cunningham.
The car unfortunately did not finish the race, after
one of the other Cunningham-fielded Lightweight E-Types (driven by Roy
Salvadori) spun out on oil leaked from Bruce McLaren's Aston Martin, crashing
down on its own roof and bursting into flames. It was an unfortunate race for a
noteworthy team, but the Cunningham E-Types became the stuff of legend just the
same.
After competing in a handful of other races, the car
became part of the collection at the Cunningham Museum in Costa Mesa,
California, until its liquidation. It's since past through the hands of several
well-known collectors, but now it's looking for a new home. It's set to
headline the Bonhams auction at the Quail Lodge in Carmel during Monterey Car
Week this coming August.
No word on how much it's expected to sell for, but
Bonhams sold the last one of these (without Cunningham's pedigree) to come up
for auction for over $7 million in Scottsdale earlier this year, so don't be
surprised to see this one fetch an even higher price.
This year's high-water mark, incidentally,
stands so far at $7.7 million brought in
for a '59 Bugatti Type 57S at Amelia Island, and the top price achieved by a
Jaguar (or any other British car) at US$ 21.78 million for a D-Type at Pebble
Beach last year.
