Desirable Cars
JAGUAR MODERN & CLASSIC ICONS

Desirable Jaguars

Enzo Ferrari reportedly called the E-Type the most beautiful car ever made — a compliment from motoring's fiercest perfectionist about a rival's design, still repeated more than sixty years later.

A Badge Defined by One Impossible Shape

Few manufacturers have a single model so thoroughly define public perception of the brand for six decades running. The E-Type's debut at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show caused such a stir that Jaguar had a second car driven through the night from Coventry just so more people could see it in person. The famous line crediting Enzo Ferrari with calling it "the most beautiful car ever made" has long rested on secondhand accounts rather than a single verified statement, and some sources suggest his actual remark was more backhanded — admiration for the shape, tempered by regret that it didn't wear a Ferrari badge. Either way, the fact that this particular compliment has stuck to the E-Type for over sixty years says plenty about how convincing that shape still is.

That reputation for design ambition runs through Jaguar's whole history, from the D-Type's genuine Le Mans-winning pedigree to the current Type 00 concept signalling the brand's next reinvention. Below are the models we've covered so far.