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| Making their marque | |
| Srinivas Krishnan / Mumbai June 29, 2009, 0:24 IST | |
The E-Type and the Defender were the cars that literally built Jaguar and Land Rover. We revisit these legends.
The Jaguar E-Type and the Land Rover Defender are two of the most famous automotive icons that Britain gifted to the world. Usually, the British press cannot have enough of these. So, whenever you come across anything from the British media that talks about either of these two cars, you’d normally turn down the hype in your mind. But for just this once, these two cars are really worth every bit of glorification they end up getting.
When the E-Type was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961, it created a sensation that refuses to die even today. Seductive and stunning to look at, the E-Type, available as a roadster and coupe, was powered by an engine that looked equally gorgeous. And it could make the E-Type move. The 265 bhp 3,781cc straight-six was not an ordinary motor; it gave Jaguar five victories at Le Mans. In the light and aerodynamic body of the E-Type, it offered performance that rivalled Aston Martins and Ferraris but without the accompanying costs. With the combination of ravishing looks, thoroughbred performance and race-bred underpinnings, the E-Type re-established the Jaguar name across the world, a name established by the spiritual predecessor of the E-Type, the XK120 of 1949. In fact, Jaguar cleverly renamed the E-Type as the XK-E for the US market to highlight this fact and the Americans simply lapped up this car.
I got the chance to drive a pristine example of the E-Type in India a few years earlier. Even after dialling back the hype, I was simply overwhelmed by its sheer presence and brilliant performance, undiminished by the passing of 40-odd years! The fabulous performance from the engine, combined with an incredibly well-balanced chassis, translated to a car that rewarded every dab of the pedal with a powerful surge and every turn of the wheel into an intuitive movement. The car befitted the marque; it was a sensuous, potent, automotive animal that moved with a feline grace. It was a jaguar. The XKR that Jaguar is introducing into the country can be considered the E-Type’s latest successor; though it has but a fraction of that visceral nature the original had.
Exactly the opposite in nature is the Land Rover Defender. Where the E-Type is king of the road, the Defender is king of the no-road. This machine has seen action over the most inhospitable terrain and in all corners of the world, establishing the Land Rover marque far and wide. As happens with many legendary cars, the Defender was supposed to be a stop-gap model to be produced at Rover’s Solihull plant after WWII, but it is still in production today! It was introduced to the world at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948, designed as a British answer to the American Jeep. With a small engine borrowed from Rover, four-wheel drive mechanicals and straightforward body panels, the Land Rover was not meant to win any beauty contests, but it was a mechanical mountain goat all right. Built using aluminium panels because of the steel shortage after the war turned out to be serendipitous — it didn’t rust!
The Land Rover was offered in many variants and for various applications. It was a life-saver, and if the terrain was dangerous, you knew there would be a Land Rover out there somewhere, helping out. In 1970, the Range Rover was introduced as a more civilised vehicle with creature comforts, but with none of the invincibility missing. It wouldn’t be wrong to call the Range Rover the progenitor of today’s SUVs. Tata Motors, however, is not introducing the Defender in India, sticking to the Discovery and the Range Rovers.
Curiously, what we know as the Defender today was not called that when it was launched. The Defender name was retrofitted to the model as late as 1990. Having driven a long-wheelbase 1987 Land Rover a while back, I was amazed at its ability to smoothen out any surface it was faced with. It simply ploughed through terrain that today’s SUVs would think twice about attempting. The Landie, as it was famously known, was bare-basic and the diesel engine was industrial in its application, but there was no denying that it made you feel invincible. It was built like a battle-tank and felt as if it could go on and on... for decades ahead. Legend has it that 75 per cent of all Land Rovers ever built are doing duty somewhere in the world even today.
Now that sort of hype is perfectly believable.
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