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Jaguar E-Type celebrates 50 years as greatest car ever made

James Raia

The Jaguar E-Type debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961, and throughout its 50-year tenure often tops industry enthusiasts most beautiful cars ever made lists.

Phil Patton, the esteemed freelance contributor to numerous magazines and author of many books about cars and the auto industry, pays homage to the 50th birthday of the Jaguar E-Type in a recent article in the New York Times.

Patton details, for example, that “the Museum of Modern Art in New York ratified the E-Type’s significance in 1996, adding a blue roadster to its permanent design collection. It was only the second road car so honored, following a 1946 Cisitalia 202 GT.”Jaguar E-Type celebrates 50 years as greatest car ever made 1

Indeed, the Jaguar E-Type is now ripe with a legacy of accolades. As Patton writes “A mythology has grown up around this Jaguar.”

A few years ago, readers of the London Telegraph named the Jaguar E-Type (XKE) the most beautiful car ever made by a four-to-one margin. The top-20 of the newspaper’s list included (in reverse order):

20. Ferrari GTO; 19. Bugatti Type S7; 18. Ferrari 250 GT SWB; 17. Austin Healy 3000; 16. AC Cobra; 15. Chevrolet Corvette; 14. Alfa Romeo P3 8C; 13. Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing; 12. Jaguar MKZ; 11. Jaguar D-Type XK-SS; 10. Ferrari 250 GTO; 9. Lotus Espirit; 8. Aston Martin D89; 7. Aston Martin D84 GT Zagato; 6. Aston Martin D84/5/6; 5. Lamborghini Miura; 4. Ferrari Dino 206/246 GT; 3. Jaguar XK 120/140/150; 2. Citroen DS. 1. Jaguar E-Type (XK-E)

The Jaguar XKE is also the car, upon its debut in 1961, Enzo Ferrari called the “the most beautiful car ever made.”

To read Phil Patton’s article on the Jaguar E-Type, visit: New York Times

Article Last Updated: March 8, 2011.

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