The man behind an ambitious automotive project that will see the car billed as the spiritual successor to the E-Type Jaguar built in Coventry has revealed its production run will be increased five-fold in response to soaring demand.

The Lyonheart K will be built at Envisage Manufacturing, a company well known for its expertise in building low volume series for specialist carmakers, and its designer Robert Palm says 250 of the cars will now be built rather than the 50 originally planned.

Mr Palm, whose Swiss firm Classic Factory has produced the modern interpretation of the classic Jaguar, also revealed a convertible version of the car will be produced.

“We have had huge demand following our last announcement in February and as a result raised production,” said Mr Palm.

“I am surprised that each time we make an announcement more and more people get interested and from further away too,” added the designer, who said most recently interest had come from the Far East and China in particular, as well as from Australia and New Zealand.

“At first we wanted to make 50 coupes and that was it but we have had more customers and that’s why we decided to expand production.

“And many customers asked for a convertible so we thought we would just go for it.”

The first cars are due to be delivered in February or March 2014, with the convertible following six months after.

The company hopes to exhibit preproduction vehicles at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Production at Envisage Manufacturing is scheduled to start in late 2013 and continue until some time in 2015, with between three and five cars being produced each week.