Jaguar E-Type

The Jaguar Mark X (Mark Ten), later renamed the Jaguar 420G, is a large, luxury saloon car manufactured by British automaker Jaguar Cars between 1961 and 1970. It succeeded the Mark IX as the top of its range, but broke radically with its predecessors in both styling and technology. From an industrial design viewpoint, the ponton-shaped Mark Ten was a hallmark car for Jaguar by introducing the upright, often slightly forward leaning front fascia and grille, flanked by prominent quad round headlights. When Jaguar replaced its entire saloon range with a more compact single new model in the late 1960s, the resulting XJ6 of 1968 used the Mark Ten as a template. Similar front grille and quad round headlight facias defined most of Jaguar's saloons for nearly half a century, until 2009 – the final year of both the 3rd generation XJ series, and of the Jaguar X-Type. Also, Jaguar did not build another car as large as the Mark Ten & 420G for the rest of the century, until the LWB version of the 2003 XJ Jaguars. Introduced within a year of Jaguar's E-Type sportscar, the Mark X copied much of the E-Type's technology and specifications. In contrast to its predecessors, the car employed modern styling and technology, with integrated unitary bodywork (the largest in the UK at the time) , four-wheel disc brakes, and Jaguar's independent rear suspension with inboard brakes, unprecedented for early 1960s British luxury cars. Combined with the 3.8-litre, triple carburetor engine as fitted to the E-type, it gave the Jaguar Mark X the capability of handling a top speed of 120 mph (193 km/h) at less than half the price of the contemporary Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. Despite press acclaim from both sides of the Atlantic and Jaguar's hopes to appeal to heads of state, diplomats, and film stars, primarily aimed at the large, affluent U.S. market, the Mark X never achieved its sales targets. The rarest now is the Mark X with the 4.2 Ltr engine as only 5,137 were built and few are known to survive.