The Jaguar E-Type Series 2 is the version that learned to live in the real world. Built from 1968 to 1971, it took the shape that had stunned everyone in 1961 and quietly made it work better: cooler, safer, easier to see out of, and better to stop. Collectors prize the earlier cars, but the Series 2 is, for many owners, the best six-cylinder E-Type to actually use.
This page covers the Series 2 in detail. For the full family story and how it sits between the others, see the main Jaguar E-Type guide and the Series 1 page that precedes it.
Why the E-Type changed
The Series 2 was a response to America, the E-Type’s biggest market. New United States rules on lighting height, bumper strength, switchgear and emissions forced a series of changes, and rather than build two wildly different cars Jaguar applied most of them worldwide. The most visible result is the face. The headlamps lost their glass covers and sat higher and more upright, the grille mouth grew to feed a bigger radiator, and the bumpers wrapped further around the body. Larger tail lights moved below the bumper at the rear.
Inside and underneath, the changes were genuine improvements: better cooling to cure the Series 1’s hot-running reputation, uprated brakes, and more supportive seats. On the 2+2, the windscreen was raked further back to fix the upright, slightly awkward look of the Series 1 version.
The American power question
All Series 2 cars used the 4.2-litre XK six with its good all-synchromesh gearbox, but not all made the same power. Home-market and European cars kept the triple SU carburettors, while American cars adopted twin Zenith-Stromberg units to meet emissions rules, which reduced output. A federal-specification import will therefore feel softer than a UK car, and many have since been converted back to triple SUs. It is a detail worth checking, because it affects both performance and originality.
The best-developed six
Taken as a whole, the Series 2 is the most sorted of the six-cylinder E-Types. It keeps the things that matter, the long bonnet, the XK engine, the slim-tyred elegance, while shedding the Series 1’s worst habits. It runs cooler, stops better and is easier to see out of, and it does all of it for less money than the equivalent earlier car. The trade-off is purely one of looks and collectability: the open headlamps and larger details cost it a little of the Series 1’s delicacy, and a good deal of its market premium.
Like the Series 1, the Series 2 was sold as an open roadster, a two-seat fixed-head coupe and the longer 2+2, the last of these now with a more steeply raked windscreen that improved its slightly upright look. The roadster is the one most buyers chase and the most numerous, but the fixed-head coupe offers the same mechanicals with a usable boot and a fixed roof for less outlay, and the 2+2, with its small rear seats, is the most practical and the most affordable way into a Series 2. Whichever body you choose, the car underneath is the same well-developed six-cylinder E-Type, and that consistency is a large part of the appeal to anyone buying one to use rather than to display.
Buying a Series 2
The structure comes first, as on every E-Type. Inspect the sills, floors and rear wheelarches, and concentrate on the front bulkhead and the engine-frame mountings, which are the key structural areas and expensive to put right. The 4.2 engine is tough but will show timing-chain rattle and worn cams with age, and a healthy cooling system matters.
On a Series 2 specifically, establish whether the car is home-market or federal specification and whether its carburettors are original, because that affects both value and how it drives. As ever, a sound, honest tub and documented history beat a shiny respray, and the Series 2’s lower prices make a well-bought example one of the most rewarding ways into E-Type ownership.
What it is worth
The Series 2 sits below the Series 1 in the market and above the V12 2+2s. Roadsters lead, then the fixed-head coupes at a discount, with the 2+2 the most affordable body style and a genuinely attainable classic. The best roadsters reach into six figures while usable coupes and 2+2s are considerably less. Auction data and the price guides track that order, with condition, originality and specification moving any individual car.
Related
The Series 2 is the middle chapter of the Jaguar E-Type story and one of the great British classic cars of the 1960s. It belongs to the wider classic Jaguar range, followed the Series 1, and gave way to the V12 Series 3.
