The name’s Harry…Prince Harry.
Once again, the world is abuzz to the sights and sounds of a royal wedding as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were married in St. George’s Cathedral at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England. The event itself is plastered far and wide over every form of media. We’re not going to talk about that, but there is one part of it that’s especially interesting for us car enthusiasts. It’s this: a 1968 Jaguar E-Type.
After the wedding ceremony and luncheon reception, Prince Harry went full-on Bond, departing with this bride in the classic Jaguar. In it, they headed to the evening reception, but something’s a bit different here. Take a look at this tweet from Kensington Palace below:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex depart Windsor Castle for a reception hosted by The Prince of Wales at Frogmore House, in a silver blue Jaguar E-Type Concept Zero. This vehicle was originally manufactured in 1968, and has since been converted to electric power #RoyalWedding pic.twitter.com/hRrxEUlFlJ
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) May 19, 2018
Where’s the straight-6?
Did you notice it? You were totally expecting a bit of a lovely straight-6 warble as the newlywed couple drove off, didn’t you? That wasn’t the case, because this Jaguar E-Type is actually electric. It was created from a 1968 Series 1 E-Type, but Jaguar Classic Works made this into a fully-electric roadster and called it “Concept Zero”. Jaguar debuted the car last September, but it’s been put to service here for the Royal Wedding.
Instead of that traditional six-cylinder engine, 220 kW, or 295 horsepower, unit shifts the car from 0-60 in 5.5 seconds. For reference, that’s about a second faster than the car would have gone with its original configuration. Think about it – drool-worthy looks, future-proof powertrain…what’s not to love? Indeed, you can also drive the car slowly and just bask in the admiring glances from onlookers. Particularly if you’re British royalty and you’re used to those admiring glances anyway. Then those glances from the car you’re driving is just a bonus.
Interestingly, the license plate on the Jaguar for the Royal Wedding read the date: “E190518”. Mind you, Europeans write the date as day, month, year, so it comes out as 19/May/2018.
