Thursday 5th October 1967

Jaguar announced a revised E-type, known retrospectively as the Series 1½. This was to meet impending US emissions legislation due to come into force on 1st January 1968, and this was after it had been delayed some four months by protests from British manufacturers. Jaguar spent £250,000 to enable the E-type to meet these new regulations. The most obvious revision to the Series 1½ was the removal of the perspex headlamp covers and the moving forward of the headlamps by 2.5in. This was another bastardization of Malcolm Sayer’s design, although the Perspex covers did diffuse the headlights. According to Jaguar’s press release of the time, a total of 21 changes were made to the export cars to satisfy US regulations. In October 1967, Autocar magazine tested the latest revised E-type roadster. The car performed best with the hood up, with a top speed of 140mph. With the hood down, it could only manage 130mph. The 0-60mph time was 7.4seconds.