Jaguar is going to build whole new C-types the old fashioned way and that’s great for me

When it comes to Jaguar real estate in the brains of most people, the Iconic E-Type tends to have the larger and more showy properties. But, for those in the know, there is an older neighborhood, full of charm, motorsport history and flowing metal curves that is worth a visit: the C-Type. Jaguar has just announced that it to build new and old C-Types as part of their continuation program. Even though I’ll never be rich enough to afford one, I spent time in a C-Type and can honestly say it absolutely deserve this rebirth.

The original C-Types were built for racing between 1951 and 1953, and Malcolm Sayer’s intuitive, if not mathematically verifiable, aerodynamic form is but an absolute marvel of what makes mid-century British racing cars. so wonderful.

It’s a quick, curvy little feline tub of a car, the kind of thing you want to run your hands over until the people around you start to feel really uncomfortable and someone one who always cares about you whispers that maybe you should be chilling him already.

The car is clearly a racing machine, and the interior reflects that perfectly; it really is a no-frills machine, all bare metal and exposed parts, and you can see in Jaguar’s online configurator for cars that, even if you choose the color of your leather upholstery, it’s still a bullshit-free experience:

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These new Continuation cars are built from archived blueprints and three-dimensional scans of the surviving cars, and, during using modern techniques and methods and tolerances and all that, are very much the original car.

Jaguar also seems to go out of its way with colors, which is great:

The engine is also cheerfully old-school: it’s a 220-horsepower 3.4-liter inline-six with triple Weber 40DCO3 carbohydrates. Carburetors! In a car under construction in 2021! Damn hot!

The C-Type was one of the first to adopt disc brakes, so these will have them and unlike the stock cars these will have an optional ‘FIA approved harness retention system’. Which is a huge step forward from the original cars. the one I co-drove in the Mille Miglia a few years ago, when the car owner suggested that I didn’t even bother with the lap belts because he thought just being thrown out of the car would be a better plan.

You can even specify the number of badges, which makes sense as most of them will likely be purchased for track use and be eligible for most historic track races and events.

Jaguar has yet to quote a price, but the other Jaguar Continuation series cars tend to sell for between $ 1 million and $ 3 million, which is a huge amount of dollars. If you’re loaded up and looking to buy some kind of impractical car, why not one of these? Get yourself something carburized!

If like most of us you are not loaded, the online configurator is free, at least.