Automotive design students at Coventry University are designing an E-Type sculpture to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famous marque.
Classic Motor Cars (CMC) of Bridgnorth approached the School of Art & Design with the idea of involving students in the design of a sculpture to celebrate the anniversary.
Peter Neumark, chairman of CMC, said: “The idea came from the fact that we had an amount of spare metal from the Lindner Nocker Lightweight E-Type, one of the most important Jaguars ever built, which we have just spent 7,000 man hours restoring.
“It struck me that it would be fantastic if we could use it to celebrate the E-Type 50th anniversary.
“As the E-Type represents such an icon for design, we decided to invite automotive design students of the world famous School of Art & Design of Coventry University to incorporate some of the metal into a piece of artwork to celebrate the model’s anniversary.”
David Browne, honorary teaching fellow at the School of Art and Design at Coventry University, said: “Around 40, mostly third year, automotive design students submitted entries.
“It’s been a long time since the E-Type was routinely seen on our roads, so most of these students, who are around 20 years old, will only ever have seen one in a museum or at an event like the Classic Car Show.”
“They will have done image-gathering research online, and the challenge was to identify ‘E-Type-ness’ in a semi-abstract way which suggests the essence of the car to the viewer without being too literal. This has been done in 2D sketch form, with – at this stage – different degrees of abstraction and impressionism.”
Shortlisted to ten, the selected semi-finalists were those which best answered the design brief and which excited and intrigued the judges with their 3D potential.
“The ten which were selected for the second round are now charged with developing and defining their designs in 3D either as physical sketch models or 3D computer models,” said Mr Browne.
For the final stage, the principal judge will be Ian Callum, the design director for Jaguar.
The top three will be awarded cash prizes but the winning sculpture will additionally be cast and produced in a limited and numbered edition that is to be auctioned to raise money for a well known automotive charity, which will be announced later.
Mr Browne said: “This is a great project – it taps into their passion for all things automotive, gives them a greater appreciation of a design icon, challenges their creativity and – whether or not they make it to the final – gives them a unique entry in their portfolios.
Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, is a Jaguar restoration company specialising in Jaguar upgrades, servicing, repair, rebuilds and car sales.
