A Rare “Quad Headlight” Jaguar E-Type goes to auction later this year. Not my cup of tea but this one is from the factory.
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Neat talking piece though….
I’ve seen photos of it several times over the years.
The first thought that pops into my head - Citroen.
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I’ve seen worse…! It isn’t exactly ugly, but it’s not terribly attractive, except to he who ordered it!
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I’ve never really cared for that car. But someone will find it “neater 'n dog farts”, as they say in Colorado.
“Abstainer” A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Writer Ambrose Bierce
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I think the auction estimates are very low. While it might not be the most attractive treatment on an E, the car has a delightfully interesting history due to its larger-than-life owner and how it came about.
The car was specially built for Hugh Campbell, the 6th Earl of Cawdor. Shakespeare fans of course recognize Cawdor from Macbeth, where the three witches (of the famous “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble” quote) foretell a prophecy of Duncan making Macbeth the Thane (king) of Cawdor. The real Cawdor Castle is quite interesting all by itself. Legend was that a donkey, laden with gold, laid down to rest under a holly tree as foretold by a prophet, and that was to become the site of the castle. The castle is literally built around that tree, which is in a room all by itself in the basement. I’m putting a couple pictures below from my visit a few years ago.
Back to the car, another quad light E type was being driven by A. Bruce, who was the president of the RAC and of Ecurie Ecosse. Campbell, the Earl of Cawdor, saw it and wanted one like it, and had to get Sir William Lyons to go along with having one built; ultimately he had 3 constructed. Campbell, however, was a womanizer, heavy drinker, and generally wild guy, and he kept crashing his Jags. His daughter was later quoted “Pa’s philosophy was that, when in town, obeying a red light after midnight was a sinful waste of precious time.”
This particular Jaguar was involved in one such crash, a rather serious one in which Campbell was ejected through the Webasto roof, probably saving his life. He would typically crash at night after his drinking bouts, but rather than spotting any correlation between his drinking and crashes, Campbell concluded that E Types were rubbish and their suspensions dangerous. Thereafter, Campbell only drove Ferraris. He still kept crashing, but for some reason didn’t blame the Ferraris.
While a bit ugly to most, this E has great provenance with a connection straight to Lyons, a very colorful aristocratic owner, and was part of an estate made famous by none other than Shakespeare. This isn’t just a modified E type - it is a special part of E type history.
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You beat me to it. I thought it was the offspring of an E-type’s illicit affair with a Citroen 
Thanks for reminding me of the background to this car. I had the same thought as you concerning the rather modest auction estimate, and wondered if this was a deliberate ploy by the auction house. It’s probably almost impossible to come up with an estimate for this sort of car, so why not give one that is likely to make a lot of folks think this could be a bargain for a car with such provenance. With any luck, at least two of them will get sucked into a “got to have it” mentality and the bidding battle will go higher and higher and result in an outlandish result. We will see…
Heck, if the final bidding is low around the estimates I’ll buy it and ship it home. What a great story for the Saturday Cars & Coffee meets!
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The headlights are terrible but the side louvers are nice.
Sorry fellows but I believe this is a beautiful one of a kind auto that had the blessing of Sir William Lyons. Though the headlights reminds me of a Citron and the V6 fiberglass Jamaican, it goes well with the side gills which I believe is awesome. It will be interesting to see what this gem will fetch at the auction…
I’ll come help buff it up with ya!
OK, but you have to come dressed as Macbeth.
Deal!
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Agreed: not my cuppa… but you’ll never run across another one.
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Agreed. The better word is fugly. It looks like a praying mantis … maybe what inspired the Marcos by the same name.
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No, it’s ugly
Edit: what I see is that the horizontal shape of the dual lamp assembly, totally destroys the front to back elongated shape of the car. It might have been done better if they were vertically aligned with one smaller on top of the other.
I really like it think it’s clever! Wouldn’t have thought you could squeeze another bulb in each side 
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Falstaff would be more fitting.