Which came first, the Jaguar XKE, or the Challaneger?

[TomY]

The Challenger by a year but when did the window style of each come on the design scene? I was thinking about that as I read and article in the NYTs about the Jaguar turning 50 this year.



The car has a timeless shape, "biological more than mechanical" some say. Some boats do the same to my eye. This window'port design is quite a classic shape. Does anyone know the history of the shape?

 

[stevens]

Don't know about window shape . But I read about an interesting connection between the Challenger and the XKE
somewhere on the web. The story about early fiberglass reported that an Alden Challenger hull hung from the ceiling at the
1961 Earlscourt auto show where the XKE was introduced to the UK. At the time the hull was seen as an amazing advanced
material. But it's a reminder that what we see as a classic was a new post war design statement, and a contemporary
of the XKE.

I learned One point about the port shape on the Zephyr , Mistral, Challenger and caravelle, when i was shopping for a Zephyr. In the research I did the shape in the late 1950's on Alden wooden cruisers, so it was a new look of that era.
In the fiberglass boats Alden was copying , a design first executed in wood.