PICTURING THE FUTURE; 1970 Jaguar E-type Coupe.(Escape Roads)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

It's said that the images most powerful to us come from our childhood. When a young Dick Popham of Ellicott City, Maryland, saw his neighbor's Jaguar XK120 in the early 1950s, something clicked, literally. The next time it came by, the young boy ran out of the house with his Brownie Hawkeye camera in hand, flagged down his neighbor and took a picture of the Jag. Today, that black-and-white photo rides in the glovebox of Popham's E-type coupe.

One could argue that Jaguar aero engineer, Malcolm Sayer, also was picturing the future when he designed the E-type. Its gorgeous lines would inspire a number of subsequent sports cars, including the Datsun 240Z. That the E-type was very much a development of the D-type and XK150S, and thus the past, did nothing to detract from the impact it made upon debuting in 1961. AutoSport said it "stole'' the Geneva show. In New York, the E-type shared the stand with Playboy Playmate, Marilyn Hanold, debatably besting her in sex appeal.

From the start, the E-type was offered in convertible and coupe forms; the heart of each was a monocoque to which front and rear subframes carrying the engine and running gear were bolted. The car debuted with a 3.8-liter straight-six carried over from the XK150 with roots in the XK engine of 1948. Drawing a mixture through triple SU carbs, the 3.8 produced 265 hp, which, combined with the E-type's light weight, wishbone/coil-over suspension and disc brakes, made for a stellar performer capable of ...