This Jaguar E-Type Restomod Is a Daily Driver With American Muscle
The view through that curved, low-cut windshield, down along that mile-long hood, is a little like peering down the runway of any international airport—it just goes on and on. The visual drama is only heightened by that bulging power dome and those lovely fluted, hood-top louvers. With my foot to the floor, the front end lifts and the rear squats as 450 hp thrusts the car forward, accompanied by the throatiest of soundtracks.
This 1974 Jaguar E-Type Series III that we’re piloting around the rural backroads of Kissimmee, Fla., may look like a fully restored, concours-winning example of the classic British roadster, but beneath that flawless, lake-deep Willow Green paintwork is a thoroughly modern marvel. This is the reimagined and handcrafted E-Type from Florida-based E.C.D. Automotive Design, best-known for its restomod conversions of Land Rover’s rugged Defender and Range Rover.
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“Choosing an E-Type as our second model made perfect sense to complement our E.C.D. Defenders,” says Scott Wallace, cofounder and CEO of the automotive atelier. “As with the Defender, we are reinventing a classic, bringing it back to life, but making it much more comfortable, and usable as a daily driver.”
As with the Defender restomods that E.C.D. has been building for the past decade—more than 500 to date—this is a reenvisioned E-Type, and it offers buyers willing to spend $300,000 and up, an astonishing level of personalization. Take the power-train configuration. The deep roar and lively acceleration from the vehicle we’re driving, comes not from Jaguar’s original 5.3-liter V-12, but a GM small-block 6.2-liter LT1 V-8 coupled with an eight-speed GM automatic transmission.
Want something even more modern? Just ask and the team will install a fully electric setup with a 300 hp Cascadia iM-225 electric motor juiced by a trio of LG lithium-ion battery packs. The latter affords a range of over 150 miles. Want purist? Keep the original V-12, which E.C.D. will ship back to the UK for a full nut-and-bolt rebuild. This includes upping the capacity to 6.1-liters and adding fuel injection to increase output from 272 hp to 348 hp. The team can even equip it with a five-speed manual transmission.
Buyers then get to go through the lengthy and involved process of commissioning their car in much the same way a Bentley or Rolls-Royce customer would work to create a bespoke model. It includes picking any color of paint, leather, and carpet, instrument graphics, steering-wheel design, new or original seats, and sound system. What is a constant, however, is the painstaking level of detail that goes into each commission, and the roughly 2,200 hours each project takes to complete.
The process itself begins with an original E-Type Series III donor car—a convertible or 2+2 coupe from 1971 to 1975—sourced in the US by E.C.D. itself. The donor is then completely taken apart in the company’s sprawling 100,000-square-foot facility, the body painstakingly restored and painted on-site, before being reassembled and finally test-driven for over 250 miles.
The roadster we’re driving is the first E.C.D. version of Jaguar’s E-Type completed. It’s known as “Project Dallas” on account of it being built for the wife of a Texas-based owner of an E.C.D. Defender. It comes with shiny, wide-rimmed Borrani-style wire wheels, beefy Fosseway high-performance brakes, and distinctive LED headlights. Inside, it’s all glove-soft Spinneybeck leather, custom Moal instruments, a lovely classic Tourist Trophy wood steering wheel, original-style seats (with heating and cooling), and a tan canvas top.
Tapping the start button brings the big V-8 to life with a satisfying whoomph. With E-Types of old, when the original engine expired, a cheap solution was to replace it with a used small-block Chevy V-8. But with this new E.C.D.-modified Jag, the LT1 motor makes a practical, though hardly exotic, solution to providing plenty of power, ease of maintenance, and bullet-proof reliability.
Yet we’re not fans of the test car’s push-button gear selector—the buttons are teeny—though, naturally, an original t-shifter is available. That, and the air-conditioning unit takes up a chunk of the passenger footwell. Off the line, the V-8 thrusts the restomod forward with plenty of induction noise and a beautifully muted bellow from that classic, four-pipe fantail exhaust. E.C.D. reckons that, when driven in anger, the big cat should run zero to 60 mph in around 4 seconds.
With new, closer-ratio power steering, modern unidirectional Michelin Cross Climate rubber at each corner, and GAZ adjustable dampers, this revised E-type feels agile and nicely responsive. As you’d expect, the car is built more for relaxed, top-down cruising than speed. And unlike original examples of the model, there’s not a creak or rattle to be heard. It seems that E.C.D. Automotive Design has found a new raison d’être—to deliver a uniquely personalized and exquisitely built modernized version of the car Enzo Ferrari once described as “the most beautiful ever made.”
Click here for more photos of E.C.D. Automotive Design’s Jaguar E-Type restomod.
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