2026 Eagle E-type review: £1m coupe is a fearsome featherweight

The lightweight Jaguar E-type has enjoyed successes in later life far beyond the imaginings of what it achieved in period. When we think of them, it’s usually duking it out for the lead of the TT Celebration race at Goodwood, scaring GT40s at the Spa 6 Hours or similar. But it wasn’t always like that. It’s possible I’ve missed something, but I don’t recall any lightweight E ever winning anything important in period and certainly never the GT category in a round of the World Sportscar Championship. They were not as quick as the GTOs and could be duffed up by Cobras and even 2-litre Porsches too. Third for Roy Salvadori at the ’63 TT is, I think, the best result it achieved.

But you only have to look at one to see why it’s so desirable. And this, coupled with a plentiful supply of donor vehicles and vast amounts of expertise explains why there are many times the number of ‘lightweight’ Es today than were ever produced in period.

None, however, like this. I expect most of you will know Eagle E-Types, the company founded in 1981 by Henry Pearman to offer E-type owners modifications, updates and upgrades to their cars, as well as a few ground-up reimaginings of what an E-type can be. The latest is this Lightweight GTR, which is a study in just how light an E-type can be made without turning it into something so stripped out and raw it has no place on the public road.

So along with the aluminium body you’d expect, so too is magnesium used for the sump, gearbox casing and differential housing, carbon ceramic for the brakes, titanium for items as diverse as the gearlever and conrods and a nickel-chromium superalloy called Inconel for the exhausts. Even the fixings, the tiny bits that join the bigger bits together, are predominately titanium. The result is that an E-type that started life weighing around 1250kg is now just 975kg ready to roll, less even than the original racing Lightweights.

And while they had 3.8-litre engines producing perhaps 320bhp, this one has been bored and stroked to 4.7 litres and makes 389bhp accompanied by a solid wall of torque.

“This is for guiding across the countryside with your fingertips”

But if you’re expecting a monster, you’re in for a surprise. It’s spacious inside, the ride quality is excellent on tall walled tyres, the cabin is beautifully trimmed, it has air-con and even somewhere to park your smartphone so you can use it for navigation. It is as fabulous to drive as it sounds. Its power-to-weight ratio is similar to that of a new 911 GT3 RS, yet it never feels like its engine is asking too much of its chassis. Unlike, say, an Aston Martin or Ferrari of the early 1960s which made do with live rear axles and spaceframe construction, all E-types have independent rear suspension and monocoques, so came with a potential development bandwidth denied to rivals.

True, the engine is massively strong and breathing through triple Webers sounds fabulously angry, but with such a light car generating zero downforce, Eagle has been able to keep the suspension soft and control the body movements using adjustable Öhlins dampers. There is no need to tie it down on its springs to control the power. On the contrary Eagle has even removed the rear rollbar, not primarily to a weight-saving measure, but to boost traction.

It doesn’t remind you of how things used to be, because if you wanted that you’d just save yourself a fortune and buy a standard E; it demonstrates how things would have been, were it only possible at the time. All that we love about old cars – looks, noise, dimensions, the complete absence of ‘driver aids’, or anything else to get in the way of the simple business of driving, is there in undiminished form. But that business of driving is reborn on a level unimaginable even to someone with a really good road E-type.

It’s not just that it’s so much faster, though it is, wildly so, but that the entire experience is much more intense. And it is the lightness, far more than its power, that’s bringing such qualities to the party. This is for guiding across the countryside with your fingertips, engine howling, carrying speed and rifling through a five-speed ’box of superb precision and feel.

Above all, it is a car for driving well. It’s a machine of modern supercar potential sitting on skinny tyres without so much as an antilock brake to save you from yourself, and I am entirely comfortable with that. It forces you to concentrate and not expect it to somehow sort it out for you when it goes wrong. Drive it casually and you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about, but accord it the respect it is due and you’re rewarded by one of the most scintillating experiences you could hope to have on a road. That’s what happens when people who know what they’re doing build an E-type which weighs less than a tonne. And I love it.

Eagle Lightweight GTR

• Price £1m approx, according to spec
• Engine 4.7 litres, six cylinders, petrol
• Power 389bhp
• Torque 375lb ft
• Weight 975kg
• Power to weight 400bhp per tonne
• Transmission Five-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
• 0-62mph 4.2sec (est)
• Top speed 170mph (est)
• Economy Not available
• CO2 Not available
• Verdict Like the old days but better.