Last night's Mad Men was filled with Jaguars. Lots and lots of Jaguars. Let's drool over the cars that will keep the show's impermeable cool intact, even as its characters get on to the uglier years of the ‘60s.
It's late 1966 and Sterling Cooper Draper Price is vying for the advertising account for Jaguar. This is shaping up to be a pivotal point for the fictional firm, but the real news is that we get to see a resplendent spread of vintage British sports cars and sports sedans.
Click through the gallery to see the cars from last night's episode.
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Joan and Don visit the Manhattan Jaguar dealership too see the crop of 1966 models. We see two Mk. 2 sedans up front and two E-Types in the back.
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That's a Jaguar 420 G behind Joan with the four headlights. They were called the Mk. X until October 1966, when they got the new name.
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This is a Mk. 2, and appears to have the largest engine available, the 3.8 liter straight six.
The salesman describes it saying, "This is a car for the American road. It's too much power for England. They don't have the space." Don quips, "Yeah plus I hear the dampness is murder on the electrical system." The salesman gets to choke out "We've worked that out," trying to forget the swearing he must hear constantly from the service department.
Photo Credit: AMC
That's when Joan spots the series I E-Type in red. Given that this is set in late 1966, the car still has glass headlight covers and it almost certainly has the 4.2 liter engine, up from 3.8 in '64.
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Don hands the salesman a $6,000 check for the car. He's quoted at $5,600.
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He and Joan leave together get some drinks. Don says that the car doesn't do anything for him and Joan says it's because he's happy. Don leaves the bar alone and wrings the neck of the E-type for a while.
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This is the part where Don Draper drives a stick shift 1966 Jaguar E-Type, one of the fastest cars of its day, while sloshed on whiskey. Life was better then, right?
We're looking forward to more Jaguar porn on Mad Men, and we hope that Don doesn't drive into anything. We'd hate to see the sheetmetal get crushed.
Photo Credit: AMC