IN THE world of performance cars, the options for someone wanting just that little bit more are endless: BMW can offer you a Competition model of most of its M cars, a Golf GTI can be ordered in Clubsport guise and of course Jaguar’s own R and R-S models of recent memory added a decisive edge to already quick cars.
No, it’s not a new phenomenon and the cash cow that is the determined petrolhead has been exploited ever since the days of the BMW 3.0CSL and Porsche 911RS. Back then though, Jaguar’s SVO-modified range-toppers were still in the distant future and when it came to the Series 3 E-Type the standard showroom model was pretty much your only choice. Although quite possibly it was felt that 5.3 litres of V12 power was quite sufficient for anyone buying a road car.
Which is why if you want the equivalent of an E-Type ‘R’ then you’ll need to build it up
