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Eagle Lightweight GT meticulous Jaguar restomod is 'the best an E-Type can be'

England claims so many boutique, specialist car companies doing such sensational work that if an artist were to draw a national muse for Britannia, she would hold a scepter in one hand and a gear shift in the other. Next up in the island's crowded showroom of posh vehicular gems, Eagle presents its Lightweight GT. The slinky coupe started as a Series 1 Jaguar E-Type (built from 1961 to 1968), then, after 8,000 hours of work in the chrysalis of Eagle's East Sussex workshops, the coupe emerges as a modern and much more comfortable version of Jaguar's factory Lightweight racers from 1963. Some context: After Jaguar stepped away from racing in the late 1950s, the company decided to convert 25 incomplete D-Type chassis into the road-legal XKSS roadster. Come 1962, with the D-Type and competition still on its mind, Jaguar toyed with its new E-Type road car to create the Low Drag Coupe for competition. The factory built just one, powered by a mightier version of the 3.8-liter straight-six in the E-Type that used a wide-angle cylinder head designed for the D-Type. The next year, Jaguar's racing fancy expressed itself in the E-Type Lightweight, still harking back to the D-Type with all-aluminum bodywork and an aluminum block for the 3.8-liter. The automaker planned to fabricate 18 Lightweights, but only got around to building 12. The Lightweights didn't dominate any of the big races, but privateers put them to effective use in smaller series. Their pedigree, aura, and multi-million-dollar valuations convinced Ford to debut an Advanced Lightweight Coupe Concept at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show, and in 2014 convinced Jaguar to complete the six remaining cars in the 18-car build.      Enter Eagle. After its Speedster, Low Drag GT and Spyder GT, the firm calls the Lightweight GT the answer to the question, "What’s the best an E-Type can be?" The hand-formed aluminum skin takes 2,500 hours to shape, revised slightly for better aerodynamics and comfort. A deeper ramp angle in front leads to deeper side sills, which bolster chassis stiffness, and with a lower floorpan, put the driver lower in the car and give him more headroom. Larger wheel arches fit 16-inch magnesium alloy versions of the peg-drive wheel Dunlop introduced in 1954, an inch larger than the wheels on the original Lightweights, and aluminum, three-eared knock-offs. There's steeper rake to the windshield and backlight.

Jaguar might not sell many XF Sportbrakes in the U.S., but here's why it's trying

One of the wonderful surprises of this year was when we learned that the U.S. would receive the XF Sportbrake wagon, and — less of a surprise — it's as much a looker as the previous generation. And while we're never one to look a gift car in the grille, it did seem strange that Jaguar would attempt to bring a wagon to the U.S., especially when it already had a similarly sized F-Pace crossover. So we spoke with Jaguar CEO Joe Eberhardt, Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum, and Jaguar's head of product planning in the U.S. to find out what prompted the company to bring the XF Sportbrake here. There were a few key reasons. One was simply that the folks at Jaguar really like the car, and they know that journalists like wagons. That doesn't exactly pay the bills for a car, but the enthusiasm is good. According to these people at Jaguar, though, they do believe there is a market for the car, and they expect to sell most of them on the coasts. Obviously, even if Jaguar sees a wagon market, it's still going to be much smaller than for crossover SUVs. But no matter how small that market is, Jaguar has an extra advantage for bringing the wagon here. The company knew it was going to make a wagon regardless of whether it would come to America, since the wagon market in Europe is so strong. In fact, Jaguar expects that half of XF sales in Europe will be Sportbrakes. So the majority of the engineering costs will be covered from those sales. The folks at Jaguar also told us that the car wasn't difficult to homologate for the U.S., so the cost of bringing it here was minimal. So in the worst case scenario that has the XF Sportbrake hardly selling in America, Jaguar isn't going to be seriously hurt. And if it's a success, then it's even more of a success. So the XF Sportbrake isn't purely a passion product, but that's OK. It means consumers have one more option to the multitude of crossovers in the U.S., and enthusiasts have the chance to own a super cool wagon. Also, although the XF Sportbrake is currently only available in America in top-level 380-horsepower S trim, Jaguar said lower trim levels and lower-output engines, all at lower prices, will be available here in the coming year or so. Meaning there will be even more ways to satisfy your wagon itch. Related Video:

Jaguar XJ220 hooned remotely by a kid

The Tax the Rich crew has a knack for indulging in automotive fantasies and capturing it all on video, such as a tug-of-war battle between two Ferrari F50s, drifting a Ferrari Enzo on gravel roads and even powersliding a Rolls-Royce Phantom on a field of wet grass. This latest video features a Jaguar XJ220 and a kid with an iPad, who somehow is able to control the old supercar with the Apple product.
No, there's no app for that (yet), and we lied - the boy isn't actually controlling the car - but it sure is nice to see the XJ220 in all its turbocharged, six-cylinder glory doing donuts and sliding across a grassy field. It jolts us to see the old Jaguar - capable of 217 miles per hour and once described by Jeremy Clarkson as having no brakes and massive turbo lag - thrown about like a rally car, but then we never imagined anybody would abuse a Rolls-Royce like that either. We'll continue to leave the high-stakes antics to Tax the Rich - we're just glad somebody had the guts to behave so badly in such a valuable machine. What else were they made for?
Be sure to check out the video below, if you have a pulse.