I was thinking & it dawned on me that the DB9 is the true spiritual succesor to the E type 1) its British 2) V12 3) manual box 4) achingly beautiful, intensly desirable, totally sexual 5) competes w Ferraris 6) Available as a race car 7) comes as a spyder 8) Totally Shagadelic !!!!!!!!!!! Hmm, Maybe its time to trade the old 4 mpg Countach in on a nice DB9 Volante next year ?
Yes, the V-12's ran from '71 to '74. I had one of them in BRG way back. But I'm not sure I would agree with the DB-9 & E-type are spiritual brothers comparison. * The V-12 part of the comparison is belated. The E-type built its rep on the inline 6. Jaguar only went to the V-12 (Series 3) in an attempt to restore some of the performance that was lost due to emissions controls. The Series 1 is the much sleeker car and just as good performance as the V-12. * I understand the AM manual-shift versions are being made available later. This says something about what AM considers their market. * The cost is cheaper than a V-12 Ferrari, but it costs just as much as the V-8 Ferrari's (assuming you can pay MSRP). Back in the '60's the E-types were a lot less expensive than a Ferrari, and affordable to younger people. Demographically I think the AM's appeal to a more upscale and older group than the original E-type. * The AM is good looking, but nothing like "sex-on-wheels" that most see in the E-type (this is personal taste of course).
Way too early to tell about the DB9. Gut instinct, wonderful and beautiful car, but isn't as revolutionary as the E-Type was, its simply an Aston Martin evolution from the DB7, AMV8, with Vanquish lines. The 5.3L V12 had a bit more than 237bhp and you're forgetting about torque. The V12 was not introduced to overcome emissions requirements but to establish cache in addition to be a platform to test the power plant for the sedans. 1996 was the year the last V12 rolled off the assembly line, this time in 6.0L form. In the US, V12 was still a rare breed when V8's were by far the most common engine configuration. Both inline 6 and V12 engines were special in the US, especially given the reputation Jaguar developed at Le Mans and with the XK 4.2L engine designed by a core group after the London bombing raids as the first post-war performance oriented Jaguar. The same V12 engine receiving tweaks and stroked to 6.0L was going to be the 500+hp Le Mans car runner until displacement was limited to 3.0L. I used to own two of them, though in sedan forn, a '74 carb'ed V12 with minor mods and a '76 fuel injected V12 that was stock. The smoothness of these V12's when in proper tune has only been equalled by the current generation power plants like the latest Lexus V8 in the LS series cars. The V12's Jaguars were the fastest 4-door sedans in the world in the 70's. That is why they did it. When emissions were beginning to take hold and fuel economy in the UK became a high priority, the high efficiency head was developed along with fuel injection. This gained several MPG on the low and high end. The V12's do quite respectable given they are attached to a 3 speed Borg-Wagner auto transmission and can return a respectable 21mpg on the highway at 70mph. In the city, they slurp as much as an SUV barely topping out at 13mpg with a light foot and 10-11mpg with a heavy one. Sunny
the e type is and was one of the beautiful cars ever made...people forget that the cars were a disaster as far as the electric system goes..also, the orginal 6 cyclinder did not perform as advertised and had less power than advertised....people in the states were removing the guts of the car and using a ford or gm v8 set and electric system...lets hope the new db9 is better built.....
As I understood the model history, the Series 1 were the best performing; the Series 2 were degraded and by '71, emissions controls were so bad on the I-6 that they couldn't sell an E-type if they kept that engine. So they took the opportunity of putting in the V-12 (which had been developed for the sedans, but possibly with an eye to the E-type too) to restore the lost performance compared to the original Series 1. See (para 2): http://www.etypejag.com/history/history_8.php I believe the Series 3 V-12 did have a few more HP than the original Series 1 I-6 (270HP vs 265HP, euro spec), however, the Series 3 car was also a lot heavier (3200 lbs vs 2800 lbs). Aside from that, I do recall the torque of the V-12 and it was certainly very good for that era (when most cars were going through the same emissions engineering problems).
Not back then they weren't. I think this comment sends the wrong message and there is an important difference. A 20-30 year old Jag that has been neglected is going to be anything but reliable or powerful enough by today's standards. A V8 conversion makes financial sense, even if you already had a donor replacement engine for free. Its not like they were ripping out the motors off the showroom floor. A year before he died, Enzo said the E-Type was one of the most beautiful cars ever made and joked that it should have been powered by a Ferrari engine. The DB9 will share the same fate as the Vantage. A great car but not legendary.
I can't say I agree with the emissions issue, since that was strictly a side effect rather than the primary reason for persuing the V12. It was being developed as a race engine as well as a road car engine to debut in the Series 1 sedans. Certainly, one doesn't design a V12 carb'ed engine in order to counter upcoming emissions issues especially given the failure of AE Brico in developing a fuel injection system, which also screwed the DB6 and 246 at the same time. That system ultimately spawned the Bosch D Jetronic taken by Lucas and modified with amplifier to drive enough spark to 12 injectors. The engine progression to V12 was already in full swing when the emissions controls were being passed. Hopefully you see the logic that you don't build a high displacement V12 to cope with emissions. In enthusiast circles, the XK inline six is still the most desirable engine with the later Series 1 cars with the so called 1 1/2 improvements. Edit: Referring to the E-Types that is. With some relatively mild modifications to cooling, induction, and cams, these engines produce more than 300bhp. Sunny
True the E Type was revolutionary & the DB9 isnt. Also Ferrari was so shaken by the E type that their answer to it was the 250 GTO, Now thats very high praise from Enzo I see the e type > DB9 sort of like the Daytona > Maranello a 60s classic w high tech goodies
Must... resist... posting... paragraphs... You're correct. The company, as time has marched on along with plenty of changes in leadership, is like a living and breathing individual langhished with age. Rivalry, competition, and innovation are no longer company hallmarks which spurned prior successes. The companies core values are subverted. Each year goes by and it refuses to confront its own shadow despite concept after concept of what future Jaguar models might bring, but never make it to production. The ALC would have crushed the DB9, from a price and performance standpoint. Until they extradite themselves from Ford leadership, the company will never succeed like Ford wishes them to. Sunny
Jaguar seems to be rolling out a new gameplan, that will take them upmarket to challenge Porsche, and a new direction in car designs.
I agree with you. I didn't say they developed the V-12 to cope with emissions. Rather it appears that the I-6 was so crippled by emissions in that era, that they had to use the V-12, they were already developing, to keep the E-type alive.
Sunny, I know what you mean about the smoothness. I wouldn't trade my 1988 (first year of the BMW V-12) 750iL for anything in the world. I still maintain that anything with 12 cylinders is an exotic by deffinition.
FWIW... http://www.jaguarcars.com/uk/sja/index.html BTW, Sir William Lyons first venture was the Swallow Sidecar Company. Apparently, as a lad, he had a passion for Harleys.
To answer the original question of this post, no. My jaded opinion. Speaking of Jaguars... "You do realize that Jaguar has always used shocks from companies like Koni, Boge, and Bilstein and their tires have been V-Rated since the early '70s. "They have had four wheel disc brakes since the late '50s, a DOHC, crossflow, hemi-chamber, canted valve head, a forged steel crank and rods since 1948, four wheel independent suspension since 1961, EFI since 1978.....the list goes on." Jeb Boyd The little engine that could: http://www.terrysjag.com/vintage4.html
Interesting bits of Jaguar history includes the model designation change. They used SS pre-war for Swallow Sidecar, but had to change it due to post-war associations. But why XK, XJ, etc - where did that come from? What happened to XA through XI? Why no XL? Why did XK precede XJ in model intro? Oh, yeah - what happened to the A-type and B-type (before C, D & E)?
Westworld, learn all you can about the XJ13. Best Jaguar ever made. The sound is amazing, the look is appealng.
