E-Type Jag is the nation’s favourite sports car

E-Type Jaguar - the Nation's Favourite Sports Car

You may remember we reported a few weeks back that the organisers of the Silverstone Classic were running a poll to find out the nation’s favourite sports car of all time.

The ‘nominees’ left a little to be desired, with some of the greatest sports cars ever built conspicuously missing from the list. But there were a few goodies from which to choose, and a few that should never have made the list in the first place.

Cars like the TVR Griffith supplanted stuff that should have been there, but one car shone out like a winner in the making – the E-Type Jaguar - in no small part because it’s everywhere at the moment in its 50th anniversary year.

But the E-Type really does deserve the accolade of ‘Best British Sports Car of all Time’ simply for its looks alone. Any car that can elicit from the notoriously curmudgeonly Enzo Ferrari the accolade of ‘Most Beautiful car ever made’ deserves to win any car competition. The fact the E-Type was – and still is – a very good car is just a bonus.

So, as we predicted, the E-Type won the poll, garnering twenty-five per cent of the 3,000 online votes in the process. Second spot went to the Morgan Plus 8 and third to the TVR Griffith. Which may say more about the age of those who voted than anything else. A criticism we can perhaps level at the panel who chose the original list of 15 cars.

But no matter, the only car that could have won did, Silverstone Classic got some PR and, just as with every other ‘Top’ anything list, no two people will ever agree completely so it stoked debate – which is always fun.

What was missing from the list in your view? Should the E-Type have won? Let us know in the comments.

1: Jaguar E-type | 24.3%

2: Morgan Plus 8 | 16.3%

3: TVR Griffith | 12.0%

4: AC Cobra | 7.4%

5: Aston Martin DB5 | 7.2%

6: Lotus 7 | 7.1%

7: Austin Healey 3000 | 6.0%

8: Jaguar XK 120 | 5.6%

9: Lotus Elan | 4.1%

10: MGB | 2.5%

(38 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK