E-type vs DB6: which is the ultimate British sports car?

Two ’60s icons go head to head in a very English GT battle

What is the best exotic sports car to come out of 1960s Britain? It’s a simple question, but one that offers up the most delicious of dilemmas: Jaguar or Aston Martin?

On paper, the E-type 4.2 roadster and DB6 Volante are closely matched. Both are powered by race-proven straight-six engines of around four litres and 300bhp; both offer thoroughbred pedigree and both come bursting with British pride.

What’s more, as a pair they represent the zenith of ’60s glamour, when the high-end cars of Blighty could comfortably match their Italian counterparts when it came to turning heads.

But which of these iconic drop-tops is truly the best? We drove both to find the definitive answer.

Licence to thrill

Even ignoring the secret agent in the room, any DB Aston Martin is a lesson in class and sophistication. They were and are exceptionally alluring motor cars – and the DB6 Volante is up there with the best.

After 1965 the model gained its distinctive Kamm tail and split bumpers, and they work best in roofless Volante form – a cut-down windscreen and slimmer rear offering a raffish profile. It’s easily the prettiest open-top Aston, in 1966-’69 Mk1 form at least (early cars were essentially rebadged DB5s, while the later Mk2 gained flared wheelarches and a bulkier hood).

An education in style

As for its compatriot rival? In purest Series 1 incarnation, the E-type remains for many the most beautiful and desirable automotive design of all time: from proud nose to tapered tail, its thrusting form is close to sports-car perfection. With minimal, elegant detailing, it makes the Aston – with its intakes above and below the large, grinning grille – look fussy.

Naturally, though, the Jaguar was also hit by that gradual process of uglifying with age – first through a clumsy restyle in 1968, then even more drastically with the S3 V12 three years later.

Beasts of different burden

Inside? Each machine feels very distinct. With a strict two seats, the lithe Jaguar (around 180kg lighter) is a compact sports car. Tall drivers will struggle for head and leg space, while the cabin is hardly what you’d call luxurious, the bank of toggle switches its most distinctive element.

The Aston? With its spacious cabin, grille-aping dashboard, comfortable seats – including two usable rear perches – electric roof and generous boot, the DB6 feels like a GT that’s lost its head.

Sports car to the core

And that was never the Jag's approach. Forget comfort and cabin appeal: the E-type was always about the driving. A world away from the heavy physical XKs that came before it, a good example remains a truly dynamic drive today.

Sure, the steering is heavy at low speeds and the lock is frustratingly rubbish, while noise can be exhausting on the motorway, but get it on a good country road and you’re in for a treat – especially in 4.2-litre Series 1 guise. Why? The Jaguar gearbox.
 

Forgiving shift

Flat-capped fans will tell you the earlier Moss gearbox is more satisfying, but the slick all-synchro unit that arrived with the 4.2-litre XK engine in 1964 transformed the E-type’s usability for the average driver.

Not that the hearty engine demands much cog-swapping, mind: the first gears get you off the line, with fourth capable of launching the roadster from walking pace to warp speed on every short straight. 

Unrivalled all-rounder

Marketed as ‘the most advanced sports car in the world’, the E-type had a stiff monocoque, disc brakes and independent suspension all round, plus near-perfect weight distribution. Pretty much the whole package.

‘Its performance, price, steering, roadholding, tractability, economy, comfort and good looks might be matched by other sports and GT cars, but not one of them has the lot,’ wrote Autocar of the 4.2 in 1967.

Blue-blooded buyers

What did the magazine make of the Volante? Who knows. Aston’s flagship was such a rarefied beast that contemporary motoring titles struggled to get a drive in one.

And that exclusivity is reflected in each model’s owners: Jaguar patrons were in company with everyone from Adam Faith to George Harrison, while the DB6 buyer joined a rather more elite class, the most famous Volante owner being the Prince of Wales. 

Weighty evolution

Unlike the E-type’s clean-sheet design, though, there wasn’t much regal about the convertible Aston’s origins, its open cabin the result of taking a hacksaw to its hard-top sibling.

It also stuck to the traditional separate-chassis formula, albeit a relatively sophisticated evolution of it, with hand-beaten alloy panels over a steel frame – in the Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera tradition – mounted on a substantial platform chassis. All of which added up to a pretty hefty kerbweight of 1.5 tonnes.

Practical improvements

So the Volante is substantial, but does it have performance fit for a prince? Well, the suspension is altogether more sophisticated than on the Astons of old, the manual transmission a slick ZF five-speed number and the brakes discs all-round.

As for the steering, the optional power-assistance could use more feel, but the weighting of the three-spoke wheel is ideal and the Aston’s 6in-longer wheelbase and 4in-wider track conspire to make it feel both more stable at speed and better balanced on the limit. 

Spritely despite the size

Fire it down those same country roads and the Jaguar driver will soon start to sweat if they try to lose the Aston. It might be smaller and nimbler, but the E-type is pretty physical to hustle along.

Once you’re used to the DB6’s size – longer, wider and taller than the Jag – you’ll find it’s a genuine surprise: it might be an evolution of the DB4 of 1958, but it shows all the benefits of experience. It’s well able to keep pace with the E-type, without over-working the pilot.

Bigger numbers, better noise

And if the engine matched its on-paper potential, it would be utterly devastating: ours is one of 29 Vantage-spec Mk1s, with a higher compression ratio and a trio of Weber carburettors delivering a hefty 325bhp – 43bhp more than the standard model and more than enough to overcome the 265bhp E-type’s weight advantage.

Sadly, our drive is some way off that today. The E-type’s spectacular torque leaves the DB6 standing as it squirts ahead on straights – though the Aston’s motor still tops the smooth Jaguar unit for noise, despite its smaller capacity, with a glorious bass blare that bounces off stone walls and hedgerows, enriching every mile. 

DB6 for the win

Even without all its horses, though, the DB6 remains a rare thrill and a beautifully engineered machine. You feel it both in the cabin – from clunk-click switchgear to tactile steering wheel – and on the road, as you revel in its bulk-defying handling.

So bad luck, Jaguar: it’s another win for Aston Martin. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of. After all, in 1966 (before Aston implemented a price cut for ’67) you could have bought nearly three E-type roadsters for the bank-breaking £5594 that a long-chassis DB6 cost. 

Pound for pound, outperformed

And that brings us to perhaps the most salient point of the whole ‘which is better’ question: price. 

See, that gap between the two machines has only widened in the intervening decades. A decent 4.2 E-type will set you back around £80k today – hardly a budget buy but, beside the Aston, it looks like an absolute steal: auction house Historics coaxed £619k from a buyer for a Mk1 Volante earlier this month.

Winning on bang-for-buck

Why the vastly inflated price tag? Simple: rarity. Quality cars are always expensive, but when desirability meets limited availability, the result is a price explosion – and, with just 215 examples built, as well as the inescapable Bond connection, the DB6 has long been beyond the reach of even the most well-heeled of mere mortals.

All of which means that, while the Newport Pagnell machine wins the emotional battle for best of British, the moral victory goes – decisively – to the Coventry classic. The Jaguar E-type is a relative bargain, and that’s not something said too often about an £80,000 car.