During its launch at the 1961 Geneva Auto Show, the Jaguar E-Type reputedly inspired Enzo Ferrari to remark that it was “the most beautiful car in the world.” While Il Commendatore’ s opinion might be debated by some Ferraristi , it’s hard to argue in the context of history. After all, in the 65 years since the E-Type debuted, few—if any—cars have eclipsed Malcom Sayer’s design for the XK-E, as the model was known stateside.

Yet a voluptuous automotive shape doesn’t necessarily translate to the most efficient aerodynamics, and as a successor to Jaguar ’s capable D-Type race car, the E-Type needed a little fettling to be ultimately competitive. Jaguar’s “Lightweight” E-Type was the answer, 18 of which were planned and a dozen of which were built in 1963 ( the remaining six have been newly constructed by Jaguar to original specification and use the original assigned VINs). Prior to building the all-aluminum Lightweights, though, Jaguar began to hone its street car to gain the competitive edge as an even more curvaceous “Low-Drag Coupe.

” Three examples were built, one campaigned in period by privateer-driver Dick Protheroe. Now owned by Viscount Cowdray, it appears occasionally at the Goodwood Revival. All three Low-Drag Coupes were slightly different, and one of them, No.

49FXN, was the aesthetic reference for fabricator Marco Diaz, who painstakingly replicated the long-gone original. Diaz engaged surviving members of the original design and producti.