MY FEEDLY

The “Italian E-Type” – A Jaguar E-Type By Frua And Italsuisse

The car you see here is the only E-Type Jaguar that had its design reworked by Frua and Italsuisse. The reason both coachbuilders took part is an interesting story in itself, largely centered around a larger-than-life character named John Coombs.

Restyling the E-Type is one of the most difficult jobs you could give to any car designer, the original design is held in such high regard that any changes to it are likely to trigger a pitchfork wielding posse intent on enacting vigilante justice.

That said, a small number of E-Types have had their styling reworked with varying degrees of success. The car you’re looking at here is one of the better known examples, referred to in Jaguar circles as “The Coombs Special.”

Fast Facts – The Jaguar E-Type By Frua + Italsuisse

The first generation Jaguar E-Type, known as the Jaguar XKE in the United States, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful car designs of all time and certainly one of the most beautiful of the 1960s.
The redesigned E-Type you see here was built for former racing driver and Jaguar dealer John Coombs, it was reveled to the world at the 1966 Geneva Salon then shown to the British public at the 1966 Earls Court Motor Show.
The first redesign was undertaken by Italian coachbuilders Frua however it was deemed too subtle for Coombs’ tastes, so he sent it to Swiss coachbuilders Italsuisse who added a number of notable design additions, including the front and rear chrome bumpers.
Just one of these was built and it’s very well-known in the Jaguar world, some love it and some are a little less enthusiastic, but it is certainly memorable.

The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made

There are many cliches in the motoring world best avoided but often repeated, chief among them are that when writing an article about the E-Type Jaguar you have to mention that Enzo Ferrari loved the design, and was quoted as saying that is was “the most beautiful car ever made.”

The styling of “The Coombs Special” is perhaps a little divisive, its most notable additions are the large front and rear chrome bumpers.

Whether or not you agree with il Commendatore there is one thing for certain, the E-Type is one of those classic cars that has well and truly broken through into the mainstream. Even regular, non-car people (of a certain age, at least) know what an E-Type is and that it’s very desirable.

There are a few other cars like this of course, cars that have entered the consciousness of the non-petrolhead world, vehicles like the Porsche 911, Lamborghini Countach, VW Beetle, Mini Cooper, Willys Jeep, and the Series Land Rovers.

The Series 1 E-Types are widely considered to be the most handsome examples of the car, the earlier models with the covered headlights and the original body styling, but all of them are worth a king’s ransom nowadays and even rusted out hulks can fetch eye-watering sums.

A Jaguar E-Type By Frua And Italsuisse

In the mid-1960s former racing driver and Jaguar dealer John Coombs contacted Frua in Italy with an idea, he wanted them to create an Italian version of the E-Type which Coombs could then display to drum up interest in similar custom built bodykits offered by his dealership – Coombs of Guildford.

To Pietro Frua’s credit, he took on the job, even then a mammoth undertaking given the popularity of the vehicle’s original styling. When the 1965 Jaguar E-Type arrived in Italy Frua and his team set to work.

It’s possible that there had been some translation-based misunderstanding as rather than creating easy to replicate body parts that could be bolted onto the car, they instead cut 20cm from the front and 10cm from the back. The front wheel arches were scalloped and the hood was modified with the power bulge turned into an air scoop accompanied by decorative faux-grilles down either side.

Frua cut 20cm from the nose and 10cm from the tail, notably truncating the car but preserving much of its body in between.

Coombs wasn’t impressed with the work, it would be exceedingly difficult and time consuming to apply it to customer’s Jaguars on request. He then sent the car to Frua-allies Italsuisse who created a set of distinctive front and rear bumpers, and changed the color from red to grey. The car very nearly missed its grand unveiling at the 1966 Geneva Salon, where it received mixed reviews.

“The Coombs Special”

The car is known in Jaguar enthusiast circles as “The Coombs Special,” after Geneva the car was shown in England at the 1966 Earls Court Motor Show. Coombs himself discussed the car with author Philip Porter in 1989:

“The idea was to have a new front which would have come to us as a complete nose and a new tail which was going to virtually slide onto the back of the old one. There was to be no major surgery involved. The idea was to do it in a couple of days of modifications and you were back on the road again.” – John Coombs

Although the car didn’t meet Coombs’ requirement it does offer a look into what the E-Type may have looked like if it had come from Italy in the 1960s, specifically from Frua. The car underwent a complete restoration starting in 2007 and it’s now presented in the condition it was in when it was shown to the world for the first time in Geneva.

This unusual E-Type is now for sale in a live auction on Collecting Cars, at the time of writing there are five days left to bid and you can click here if you’d like to read more.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars + Matt Woods Photography

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For Sale: A Lamborghini Miura Front Clamshell

This is the front clamshell from a Lamborghini Miura, it was removed by the car’s owner and replaced with a new nose, then placed into storage where it has remained for decades.

It’s now being offered for sale as a standalone piece that’ll likely either be bought by someone who wants a spare for their own Miura, or by someone who wants to display it as an automotive sculpture.

The Lamborghini Miura is a car that needs no introduction, it’s regarded by many as the world’s first modern supercar, and it’s layout with a rear-mid- mounted engine and transmission is now the de facto choice for almost all supercars in production.

The Miura was styled by Marcello Gandini, one of the most important and influential automobile designers of the 20th century and the man who would later design the Lamborghini Countach, Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo Montreal, De Tomaso Pantera, Cizeta-Moroder V16T, and countless others.

Many point to the Miura as being the single most beautiful car ever designed and almost everyone agrees its one of the top ten. It was famous developed in secret by Lamborghini’s top engineers – Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace, without Ferruccio Lamborghini’s knowledge.

With the paint removed you have a unique insight into the manufacturing process of the alloy Miura body, with all the original tool marks clearly visible.

The created a low slung car with a semi-monocoque steel chassis that had a steel monocoque cockpit section combined with front and rear subframes. This formula is used today on a number of modern supercars, typically substituting the steel for carbon fiber.

The engine was fitted behind the driver and passenger in a sideways or transverse orientation, sharing the crankcase with the transmission to save space. Interestingly this was the same power unit architecture introduced on the Morris Mini in 1959.

Fortunately, Ferruccio Lamborghini approved the project for production and in so doing helped to transform the high-end automobile would, while at the same time causing no small amount of consternation for Enzo Ferrari – his arch rival.

The Miura clamshell you see here was shaped by hand in Italy by highly skilled metalworkers, if you look closely you can see the original tool and hammer marks that are only visible now that the paint has been removed.

If you’d like to add this clamshell to your own Miura or install it in your living room as a sculpture you can click here to visit the listing on Collecting Cars. It’s being auctioned live now and at the time of writing there are five days left to bid.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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The Extremely Rare Jensen FF – The World’s First All-Wheel Drive Production Car

When the Jensen FF was released in 1966 it made the motoring world sit up and pay attention. The FF was the first production car with all-wheel drive, it was also the first production car with an anti-lock braking system.

To say the model was ahead of its time would be a considerable understatement, though because Jensen only managed to sell 320 of them between 1966 and 1971 very few people have ever even heard of the model, let alone seen one in person.

Fast Facts – The Jensen FF

The Jensen FF was directly based on the body of the much better known Jensen Interceptor, a British built grand tourer with a body styled in Italy by Carrozzeria Touring and a V8 engine supplied by Chrysler.
“FF” stands for “Ferguson Formula,” an all-wheel drive system developed by Ferguson Research Ltd and licensed to Jensen.
The Jensen FF is 5 inches longer than the standard Interceptor, it’s also slightly heavier. It can be visually distinguished from its stablemate by the twin vents on the front fender (there’s only one on the Interceptor), and it’s different front end.
The American V8s used in the FF and the all-wheel drive system proved largely bulletproof, the main weakness of the cars lay in their rust-susceptible steel bodies.

Jensen Motors – A Different Kind Of Automaker

By the time the Jensen FF was released in 1966, Jensen Motors already had a long track history of producing innovative vehicles. The company had been founded back in 1922 as W J Smith & Sons Limited by brothers Alan and Richard Jensen,m and they quickly made a name for themselves with their automotive designs.

In 1934 they were commissioned by Clark Gable, arguably the biggest movie star in the world at the time, to build him a custom Ford V8. This brought the company considerable free publicity and no small amount of prestige.

Above Video: The team at Classic Driver take a look at the Jensen FF and the modern Ferrari FF, both all-wheel drive production cars, though very different in their execution.

During the 1930s the company diversified into also producing commercial vehicles, and during WWII they aided the war effort by building parts for military equipment, including turrets for tanks.

In the years after WWII things got really interesting, Jensen began using a new lightweight composite material, better known as fiberglass, to make their car bodies. This allowed them to make automobiles with sweeping curves without the need for expensive steel stamping equipment. These car bodies were also lightweight and impervious to rust.

Cars from this era, like the Jensen 541R and the Jensen CV8, were precursors to the vehicle that Jensen would release in 1966 – the Interceptor. The Interceptor would go on to become their best selling car ever, and the Jensen FF would be closely based on it, looking almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye.

Due to a slew off problems that arose in the 1970, key among them the 1973 Oil Crisis, Jensen Motors stopped trading in 1976. There have been a few attempts to restart production in the years since, and remarkably it’s possible to buy yourself a new, modern version of the Jensen Interceptor today.

The Jensen FF – A Forgotten Grand Touring Legend

When Audi was setting about designing their Quattro all-wheel drive system in the late 1970s they sent out buyers to find them a secondhand Jensen FF. They then disassembled the drivetrain and studied how it worked.

The interior of the Jensen FF is well appointed for grand touring, much like its sibling the Interceptor.

Audi would later develop their own all-wheel drive cars for both motorsport and regular production, winning countless races and a number of world championships in the process.

The influence that the Jensen FF had on all-wheel drive production road cars was signifiant, we know they influenced Audi and almost certainly Subaru, by the mid-1980s Audi had spread the gospel of four-wheel drive through the church of Group B – making it the de facto drivetrain of choice for those who wanted to win.

The design off the FF all-wheel drive system looks much as you’d expect, with power sent to a central differential which then sends varying amounts to the front and rear differentials. The standard power split is 33% front and 67% rear.

“FF” stands for “Ferguson Formula,” an all-wheel drive system developed by Ferguson Research Ltd and licensed to Jensen. This system was combined with the Dunlop Maxaret mechanical anti-lock braking system that had previously only been used on aircraft, trucks, racing cars, and prototype road cars.

Ferguson Research had developed their own all-wheel drive Formula 1 car in 1961, the Ferguson P99, and despite limited funding it proved to be successful, winning the 1961 International Gold Cup at Oulton Park with Stirling Moss at the wheel. The car would then be driven by Peter Westbury who used it to win the British Hillclimb Championship in the same year – proving that the concept was perfect for motorsport.

You can see the front differential there on the right of the sump, the addition of the four-wheel drive system meant that a right-hand drive version of the car wasn’t possible.

One design error that was made during the development of the Jensen FF was that no allowance was made for a left-hand drive version. The FF AWD system encroached on the left side of the passenger compartment and resulted in it not being suitable for a left-hand drive set up, this meant that a US version of the car couldn’t be built, and it severely limited the export sales potential of the new car.

Much as with the Interceptor, power was provided by prodigiously proportioned American V8 engines though unlike the Interceptor there was no manual transmission option with the FF – the automatic gearbox was directly linked to the Ferguson Formula system.

With just 320 examples of the Jensen FF built and somewhere over 100 remaining the car is now a much sought after historic vehicle, the biggest difficulty of owning one is paying the fuel bill and explaining to well meaning passers by that it’s not “just” an Interceptor.

The Jensen FF Shown Here

The can you see here is the nicest looking FF we’ve seen come up for sale in years, it’s been owned by one family since it was just six months old, and it was returned to the Jensen factory in the 1980s to have some body restoration work done.

During this time it also had its brakes upgraded to discs all round. It also received new front wings, door skins, and rear quarters, and front and rear valances were fitted. The vehicle was then dry-stored for 25 years, in 2010 a partial restoration was undertaken, and today the car retains its original matching engine, gearbox, transfer box, and front and rear differentials.

Bonhams are due to offer this remarkable FF for sale on the 18th of September with a price guide of £90,000 – £120,000, which works out to approximately $120,000 – $170,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.