The Open Road, a popular UK renter of classic sports and sports sedans, opens its latest newsletter with: "Do you remember the first time you saw and heard a Jaguar E-Type?" No problem for this scribe. I was editor of Canada Track & Traffic magazine and had been offered an E-Type for a test. The most memorable moment came when two drivers heading in the opposite direction were so mesmerised by the bright red image that they rear-ended. An equally embarrassing memory happened when my CT&T boss, Norm Namerow, suggested I take his race-prepared E-Type out for a few laps during a Mosport race weekend. My racing experience was limited to modified rear-engine VW beetles and Porsches, where I'd conquered oversteer but had no experience with understeer and was accustomed to gearboxes that shifted, as the journalists of the day wrote, "like a knife through melted butter." The Moss box, through rugged, was better suited to army tanks. Ah, another opportunity missed!
Should you, like me, harbor memories of Jaguar drives and should you be planning a UK vacation, the Open Road now offers on rental, a 1970 Jaguar E-Type Roadster. Since acquiring the Roadster the folks at Open Road have made a number of upgrades, followed by a check-ride in a Euro rally, assuring that renters will have a trouble-free vacation.