2005 Jaguar Xk8 on 2040-cars

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Jay Leno gets reacquainted with the Bertone Pirana

Jay Leno gets all manner of vehicles stopping by his garage – some more rare than others, but this one is an entirely unique creation unearthed from another time. It's the Pirana, a one-off commissioned by a British newspaper in the late Sixties that we actually found listed on eBay a few years back. It was built atop a Jaguar E-Type, but with custom bodywork designed by Marcello Gandini and crafted by Bertone. The result looks like a Maserati Ghibli or Lamborghini Espada of the same era, but actually came out just before either, previewing the Italian exotics that would follow from Gandini's pen and Bertone's carrozzeria. The Pirana is now undergoing a complete restoration to bring it back to the original condition in which it appeared at the 1967 London Motor Show, but before the process is complete, Leno shows us around and takes it out on the open road to relive memories of a relic from a bygone era.

The Jaguar E-Type Lightweight is back on the prowl after a few decades away

Sometimes procrastination has its benefits. Jaguar originally planned to build a run of 18 E-Type Lightweights for racing in the '60s. However, it was only ever to complete 12 of them. It has taken all of the intervening decades to finally get back to the project and build the final run of new Lightweights. While Jag announced the plan recently, the first continuation model was unveiled during the Pebble Beach weekend.
Coming from Jaguar Land Rover's Special Operations unit, these cars are identical to the way they left the factory in the '60s. Jag is even using the same grade of aluminum for the bodies, and the cars are fully compliant for FIA historic racing. Power comes from an aluminum, 3.8-liter inline-six with about 300 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque routed through a four-speed manual gearbox. Who could guess that in 2014 someone could buy a brand new vehicle from a major manufacturer that comes with Weber carbs? Though, Lucas mechanical fuel injection is an option.
While they look old, these new E-types are also a wonder of modern technology. To get things just right, the company laser scanned an original car to create the new bodies. Check out the gallery from the unveiling to see this old cat on the prowl again.

Lightweight E-Type to show historic side of Jaguar Special Operations in Monterey

Jaguar has made a lot of great vehicles over the years, but as far as historians are concerned, it still very much lives in the shadow of the original E-Type, small as it was. In its image, Jaguar has made two generations of XK and the new F-Type, but what we have here is the most faithful continuation of the E-Type heritage yet.
Alongside the Range Rover Sport SVR and the F-Type Project 7 (making its US debut), Jaguar Land Rover and its new Special Operations division will roll into Pebble Beach this year with the continuation Lightweight E-Type. Of the 72,500 E-Types which Jaguar built between 1961 and 1975, only a dozen were Lightweight versions, and they remain the most coveted E-Types of all. It originally planned on building 18 examples, though, and five decades later, it's now committed to completing that original production run in faithful detail.
The Lightweight E-Type was based on the standard roadster and was homologated as such, just with some key upgrades to make it lighter and faster. The biggest change, of course, was the lightweight aluminum bodywork that cut 205 pounds off the curb weight. To replicate it, Jaguar took the last example (the only one made in 1964 after the original eleven were made in '63), scanned half its body surface, mirrored it to ensure symmetry and set about reproducing it with the same standard of materials available in the Sixties (and resisting the urge to go with more modern grades of aluminum). 75 percent of the 230 components are made in-house, with the largest stampings outsourced and built on machinery built to Jaguar's specifications off-site.