1968 Mustang Fastback VS 1961 E-Type Jaguar
It’s the age-old question: American muscle, or British style and high performance? In this corner, a 1968 Mustang fastback — the Bullitt shape. In the other, a 1961 Jaguar E-Type in British Racing Green.
Both are knockout cars. Both defined the 1960s. I know where I fall. How about you? Being American to the bone. I’ll take the 1968 Mustang fastback. That doesn’t take a thing away from the E-Type.
It’s still my favorite British car ever built. The lines are almost unfair. The XK straight-six does a remarkable job. But it also comes with Lucas electrics, a first gear that isn’t synchronized on the earliest cars, and an ownership experience that asks more of you than a Ford ever will.
Let’s put them side by side instead of just picking a favorite. Two different ideas of “fast.” The E-Type landed at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1961 and stopped the room.
Long hood, covered headlights, that tapering tail — Enzo Ferrari is widely quoted as calling it the most beautiful car ever made.Whether he said the exact words is debated. The fact that people still repeat them tells you how the car landed.
guessingheadlights.com
accelerationtimes.com
“Bullitt style” means a fastback, usually Highland Green, usually a 390 GT. Steve McQueen’s movie cars were S-code 390 four-barrels with the GT package and a four-speed. Factory rating: 325 hp and 427 lb-ft. Period tests of a 390 GT fastback ran 0–60 in the mid-sixes and the quarter in the mid-fifteens.
One car is a grand touring sports car that happens to look like sculpture. The other is a Detroit V8 in a taut, usable coupe that a regular person could actually buy.
1968 Mustang Fastback specs:
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| Engine Location : | Front |
| Drive Type : | Rear Wheel |
| Body / Chassis : | Steel unibody |
| Production Years for Series : | 1964 – 1973 |
| Price : | $2,600-$2,812 |
| Weight : | 2636 lbs | 1195.669 kg |
| V 8 | |
|---|---|
| Displacement : | 4736 cc | 289.0 cu in. | 4.7 L. |
| Power : | 195 HP (143.52 KW) @ 4600 RPM |
| Bore : | 4.0 in | 102 mm. |
| Stroke : | 2.9 in | 73 mm. |
| Compression : | 8.7:1 |
| Main Bearings : | 5 |
| Valvetrain : | 16 OHV (2.0 valves per cylinder) |
| Cylinder Block | Cast-iron |
1961 E-Type Jaguar Specs:
| Engine Location : | Front |
| Drive Type : | Rear Wheel |
| Body / Chassis : | Steel body on box-section steel frame |
| Production Years for Series : | 1961 – 1968 |
| Price : | $5,599-$5,890 |
| Weight : | 2460 lbs | 1115.837 kg |
| Inline 6 | |
|---|---|
| Displacement : | 3781 cc | 230.7 cu in. | 3.8 L. |
| Power : | 265 BHP (195.04 KW) @ 5500 RPM |
| Torque : | 260 Ft-Lbs (353 NM) @ 4000 RPM |
| Bore : | 3.4 in | 87 mm. |
| Stroke : | 4.2 in | 107 mm. |
| Compression : | 9.0:1 |
| Main Bearings : | 7 |
| Cylinder Block : | Cast-iron |
| Cylinder Head : | Aluminum |
| 3 SU carburetors | |
Transmission: 4-speed manual
On paper, the Jaguar is the more sophisticated machine: twin-cam six, IRS, discs all around, higher claimed top speed. The Mustang answers with a wave of midrange torque and a parts-bin you can still walk into a shop and work from. That’s the split in a sentence. How they feel:
The E-Type is all flow. The hood stretches out forever. The engine is smooth and busy. Steering is unassisted and talkative. On a good road it feels smaller and more precise than the numbers suggest.
The early Moss gearbox is the tax you pay: that unsynchronized first gear will humble you in traffic until you learn it. The ’68 fastback is heavier in the hands and louder in the chest.
The 390 doesn’t need to be wrung out. It just leans on you. The live axle is honest, not elegant. The cabin is roomier than the Jaguar’s two-seat cockpit. You can take a friend, a bag, and still look like you belong in a chase scene. Both cars are low. Both cars make you late. Only one of them sounds like America.
Fastbacks are the ones people want, so prices have climbed, but a solid driver is still a realistic project. Body panels, trim, 390 and Windsor engines, Toploader gearboxes — the aftermarket never left.
Rust in the torque boxes, shock towers, and cowl is the usual story. A proper restoration is work. It is not archaeology. E-Type: The car is worth the trouble if you love it. The XK six is a jewel when it’s right.
The independent rear end is a work of art and a labor bill. Lucas wiring is the joke everyone knows because it’s true enough to keep repeating. Early Series 1 cars (covered headlights, toggle switches, triple SUs) are the ones collectors want.
A neglected E-Type will cost more to do correctly than a comparable Mustang, and the specialists who do them right are fewer. If you want to drive a 1960s icon on weekends without a second mortgage to a British-car specialist, the Mustang wins. If you want the object Enzo (maybe) called the most beautiful car in the world sitting in your garage, the Jaguar wins.
Those are different purchases. What they’re worth now: Values move, and condition is everything, but the pattern is stable:
- A decent 1968 fastback often lives in the mid-five-figures; strong 390 GT and well-done restomods run higher. Movie provenance is a different universe — the surviving Bullitt car sold for millions.
conceptcarz.com
- A proper Series 1 E-Type coupe is commonly a mid-five to low-six-figure car; roadsters sit higher. The 3.8 and early 4.2 covered-headlight cars lead the pack.
Neither is a good fastback anymore. The call: I’ll still take the 1968 Mustang fastback. Not because the Jaguar isn’t special. It is.
That British Racing Green E-Type is the one British car I’d park next to anything we build. The styling has not aged. The six still sings. But when I think about the car I actually want to hear on a Saturday morning in Utah, it’s the 390, the fastback roofline, and the movie that made a production Mustang feel like a weapon. American muscle isn’t subtle. That’s the point.
Your turn. Fastback or E-Type? Bullitt green or British Racing Green? Drop it in the comments — and if you’re staring at a tired Mustang that deserves a second life, you know where to find us.
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