Controversial Jaguar E-type at SEMA 

The 1961 Jaguar XKE was sleek and beautiful 

The original Jaguar E-Type design revealed in 1961 was sleek and beautiful but with added regulations in the United States market, the XKE gained side marker lights in 1968, and with new  light standards in 1970, the sleek covered headlights were replaced with larger exposed headlights and oversize turn signals.

By 1974 with US government mandates

 the XKE had grotesque additions

Model year 1974 brought about new bumpers to comply with the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Saving Act. This new regulation required no damage to the car’s lights, safety equipment and engine in angled 5 mph impacts. To comply, Jaguar added large square rubber bumper guards both front and rear. The once-sleek XKE design became a grotesque caricature in the eyes of purists.   

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Chip Foose the custom car builder and star of the “Overhaulin’” reality television show built a “resto-mod” 1974 Jaguar XKE Series 3 Open Two Seater (OTS) over a period of two and a half years in Foose’s Huntington Beach shop. This Foose creation was shown at the BASF/Glasurit paint booth at the 2019 Specialty equipment Market Association (SEMA) show.

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Up front, Foose Design built a power bulge with a scoop into center of the hood, crafted a new Ferrari “egg crate” style grille and built sleek new bumpers. In place of the original 1974 upright oversized “bug eyed” E-Type headlights Foose Design hand-shaped new brass bezels for the new covered headlights.  

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Out back, the Foose team removed the gas filler door and radio antennae, built new taillights into the fenders in place of the originals, and crafted new bumpers.  The car was converted into a true roadster with no roll-up windows and no top and the interior received the Foose touch to make it clean simple and elegant.  

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The Foose Design dashboard is a 

huge improvement over the original 

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The controversial aspect of this build is under the long front-tilting clamshell hood. Foose discarded the original all-aluminum 326-cubic inch Jaguar V-12 engine in place of a 378-cubic inch Chevrolet  LS3 V-8 crate engine, breathing through a Magnaflow quad exhaust, connected to a General Motors 4L60-E four-speed automatic transmission.

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The car rides custom-built 20-inch wheels complete with knock-offs wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tires that evoke memories of car’s original wire wheels. The custom bodywork is covered in BASF/Glasurit Refinish 90-Line metallic basecoat and clear coat paint system in a custom-mixed “Palm Copper” color created by Chip Foose.  

Glasurit advertises that its 90-line paint system is highly efficient to use, with less time needed in the paint booth thanks to fast application and short flash-off times. Another benefit is that less material is needed, thanks to the excellent hiding power and the low amount of mixing base in the ready-for-use mixture which is can be thinned with water.

Check out BASG Glasurit's website at http://refinish.basf.us/brands/glasurit/

All photos of the Foose Design Jaguar by the author