24 replies to this topic

[Quixotic]

G'Day all,

I found this on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com....=item230dc8636d

The owner says is is a 50s-60s Grand Prix car, but the engine seems to be a post 1975 V12 XJS Jag engine. I am quite possibly wrong, but someone must know what this car is?

A Modern Special perhaps?

[arttidesco]

What a fabulous contraption looking at the third photo shows interesting construction more in line with the 70's and 80's than the 50's or 60's with bits from earlier vehicles perhaps thrown in. Either way I bet there is a fascinating story waiting to be told about this car. Great find thanks for sharing

[Bloggsworth]

I don't care - Let me drive it...

[Ray Bell]

To me there's a certain level of repugnance in this...

That someone would put together a car that costs so much money and involves so much time, but that isn't able to be used in some form of competition, is worthless.

Stuart's Binalong Special, which has a V12 Jag engine in a single seater that looks very W163 is an exception, the reason being that it's road-equipped and he can take trips in it.

[Gary C]

oh, please.

[D-Type]

The e-bay pictures don't show what's underneath so we have no real idea what it is. I would guess at a modern special. But as Ray says: Why?

[Sharman]

It. looks as though its' mother was frightened by a Supet Squalo

[Lee Nicolle]

Looks to me to be a 90s Special built from a 70s XJ6. As Ray says, Why?

[David Birchall]

I like Ray's word "repugnant".

Why doesn't the seller just put "Looking for a sucker-apply here".

I am in the process of building a 'Special' but I have made sure it has been documented here and elsewhere-there will be no shenanigans like this in the future with my car.

[Levin68]

At the right price, it would be a fun, fast and reasonably reliable track day car or club hillclimber. But nothing more, despite what looks like good workmanship.

[Catalina Park]

There was a story about this car in the Cars guide in the Sydney Daily Telegraph a couple of months back. That story claimed it was a HWM chassis. I see in his advert he now denies the HWM chassis.

[Sharman]

Just had another look at this, I agree with Ray that, at first glance, this appears to be a futile exercise but I wish that I was as good a panel basher as the bloke that did the body. It's a pity that there is no photo of it in undressed state, it would be interesting to know what the chassis is, obviously not spaceframe so twin tube or rails? Was there any further info in the newspaper article mentioned?. Maybe there is an interesting chassis under there, one thing is sure, somebody has spent a deal of time and money to achieve the result on offer. Forza the special builders.

[Tom Glowacki]

It. looks as though its' mother was frightened by a Supet Squalo

Or, worse than that . . .

[D-Type]

There was a story about this car in the Cars guide in the Sydney Daily Telegraph a couple of months back. That story claimed it was a HWM chassis. I see in his advert he now denies the HWM chassis.

Looking for something else I found this. Another Australian car thought to be an HWM-Jaguar. Interesting...

[Quixotic]

the owner is quote vague isn't he? I wonder if he is being deliberately so? I think that perhaps I am just being a little too harsh.

He may have spent a lot of money, (it certainly looks as though heaps have been has been sent on it). withougt worrying what it was. But I don't know too many people who would do that. I certainly would not.


Still, it looks nice. A bit too commercial, but nice.

Edited by Quixotic, 04 February 2011 - 10:22.

[arttidesco]

I wonder if who ever built the Jag Special is any any way related to the Blastolene brothers ?

[Ray Bell]

Just for the record... here are the pics as used on eBay:





And in case someone wants to identify the approximate year of the engine:

[Dick Willis]

It has been suggested that this car had its origins in the Witney Special which raced in Queensland in the late 5o's early 60's first with a Standard based Jag engine and then with an XK, does anyone have any further info on this ?

[Chezrome]

It has been suggested that this car had its origins in the Witney Special which raced in Queensland in the late 5o's early 60's first with a Standard based Jag engine and then with an XK, does anyone have any further info on this ?

Geez! The pictures of the engine... It looks like a crashed Spitfire aeroplane lifted out the sea and then equiped with wheels...

[Arjan de Roos]

Paint it red and it could go for a crappy F555 SSqualo replica...

[Muskrat]

That look slike alot of fun - especially if Road legal

[Ray Bell]

It's not road legal...

However, Stuart Saunders' similar device is. And it features a lot of Cosworth engine-expansion stuff inside its V12 and is made more to look like a W163 with cycle guards.

On a good day, I think it has a blower driven from the nose of the crankshaft, too!

[john medley]

Sorry for taking this absolutely off thread, but....

I was standing at a Canberra Art Gallery Sprint meeting looking doubtfully at Stuart Saunders' V12 Jaguar / Jensen/ fibreglass-bodied roadgoing thing-- which at that time was impossible to believe with its very long and flat nose-- and overheard two elderly Canberra public servants in whispered conversation:
Old Fart 1:" I hear that he had the fibreglass body built by a young person who had only ever done surfboards"
Not So Old Other Old Fart: " It shows"

[Sharman]

Paint it red and it could go for a crappy F555 SSqualo replica...

Arjan
Refer you to post 7
Sharman

[Arjan de Roos]

Arjan
Refer you to post 7
Sharman

Its looks just derailed my eyesight...