One to Buy: ex-Equipe Endeavour 1961 Jaguar E-type 3.8 Series 1 ZP OTS Roadster
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Although Jaguar had officially decided to withdraw from motor racing a few years prior, a batch of seven specially prepared E-types were prepared for competition use during the 1961 season following the model’s debut at the Geneva Motor Show that March.
Despite having been outwardly identical to any E-type OTS Roadster of the time, these quasi-works ZP racers came with engines that featured a higher compression ratio while the cylinder heads, inlet manifolds, valve springs, connecting rods, crank damper, carburettors and exhausts were also suitably enhanced. In addition, each car came fitted with a lightweight flywheel, racing clutch, a close-ratio gearbox and uprated suspension.
In the hands of Tommy Sopwith’s Equipe Endeavour, the John Coombs Racing Organisation, the Peter Berry Racing Team and Sir Gawaine Baillie, these modified E-types took the fight to Ferrari’s much more highly specialised 250 GT SWB Berlinetta and racked up many significant wins.
Today, one of these rarely seen ZP E-type specials is on offer at the Joe Macari showroom in London.
Chassis 850018 was one of two ZP E-types delivered to Equipe Endeavour and initially served as the team’s ‘paddock’ car for 1961 and back up to chassis 850005. It was twice pressed into action that year; Jack Sears finished second overall in the Crystal Palace Norbury Cup on May 21st and then fourth overall in the Snetterton Molyslip Trophy on September 30th.
More recently, between 2010 and 2012 chassis 850018 was the subject of a painstaking restoration by DK Engineering and E-Type UK in its original colour scheme of Indigo Blue with Red upholstery.
