Eagle Lightweight GT 2020 UK review

Опубликованно 05.09.2020 17:12

What is it?

Ask me to configure a car to get down my favourite road and it would go something like this.

It would need to be light, of course, and quite but not overwhelmingly powerful. I’d like to find the engine ahead of me and the driven wheels behind. That engine should have more than four cylinders and power the rear wheels through a manual gearbox. And the car should be slender, so it has more of its own side of the road on which to play. Fully independent suspension and disc brakes are, of course, a must, too. What's it like?

If it looks like one of those super-rare lightweight E-Type racers the factory made for wealthy customers in the early 1960s, that is no coincidence.

But nor does it have a panel in common with any E-Type, road or race. It is Eagle’s own creation, and in hand-beaten aluminium, it is so beautiful that when I first saw it, I just started laughing.

Mechanically, nothing has been left untouched. The engine is based on the famed XK straight six but is Eagle’s specification, complete with its own aluminium block. Within limits, you can have as much or as little power as you like: this one displaces 4.7 litres and with Weber carbs has around 380bhp, which is well over 100bhp more than any standard six cylinder E. If you’d prefer fuel injection, that can be done, too. Should I buy one?

This, then, is a wickedly fast old car yet ridiculously capable, too. You can waft along, soaking up the sight and sound of the classic car it remains, or you can put that motor to work, revel in the car’s compact dimensions, beautiful balance and tireless AP Racing brakes and disappear from anything that comes near you.

It is, of course, hideously expensive and there are some other highly capable restomods these days, but all I can tell you is that on that one particular road – quiet, twisting, challenging and long – and in that one particular moment, there was scarcely a car in the world I’d have rather been driving.

Eagle Lightweight E-Type   specification

Where Welsh Borders, UK   Price ?810,000   On sale now   Engine 6 cyls, 4700cc, petrol Power 380bhp at 5750rpm Torque 375lb ft at 4000rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual   Kerb weight 1017kg Top speed more than 170mph 0-62mph less than 5.0sec Fuel economy no WLTP figure available   CO2 no WLTP figure available Rivals Alfaholics Alfa Romeo GTA-R, GTO Engineering Ferrari 250 SWB

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Just Saying ?810,000 3 September 2020 Are you serious? Total madness.

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