[AC Ventura]

Hi guys from the UK.

Yes it is all very curious, how Jaguar have managed to produce these E types and now it seems in the pipeline, XK SS's and seemingly got them passed through European IVA. That's individual Vehicle Assessment and it means brand new one off vehicles, can be road registered if they meet certain European standards, which are basically watered down versions of those applicable to new vehicles. The idea is 1) to stop people making dangerous cars and 2) preventing for example a Bugatti type 35 made out of spares, being sold as a genuine car built by Bugatti. It's making life very difficult for kit car manufacturers and builders.

Additionally, the rules make it very difficult to make a classic car compliant. There's loads of stuff like, minimum dashboard radii, no sharp edges, lamp dimension, fog lamps, hundreds of dimensions to fall within and all stuff that a period faithful XK would fail. Emissions are a different matter, as the rules amongst other things, allows basically one remanufactured part such as the engine and that's tested to the period date of manufacture.
This is all about obtaining for the car, the vital or 'normal' UK registration number plate to fit on the car. If you don't meet the criteria, which is practically examined, you get the dreaded non challengeable 'Q' plate. This means a registration number beginning with Q, which means a car of no determinable age. Rightly or wrongly, the UK this renders the car comparatively worthless.
How Jaguar have seemingly overcome the process designed to stop what they are doing, is interesting to say the least. Generally, the DVLA (the licencing body) don't accept that a manufacturer can say 'Goodness me, here's some chassis we forgot to make back in the '60s'. I think Shelby himself, got into deep water over similar antics, your side of the Pond, did he not?
I have been very involved with the intricacies of IVA and the manual runs to hundreds of pages. An unscrupulous person could get round the test by presenting a car built to pass, then changing everything after registration. But I don't believe Jaguar would do that.