Seeing is believing?

There’s two more vids after the jump.

Continue Reading…

OK, now this is some crazy stuff right here. Some guy decided to stuff a Jaguar V-12 into a Datsun 240Z.

240Z engine swaps are almost as old as the car itself. I used to own a ‘73 240. Got it from the second owner, just perfect shape. I “sold” it to my dad, and then he turned around and gave it to my brother not two months later.

Anyway, once I had to drive my 240 out to where my then-wife ditched the VW Rabbit after shredding the ferrule off of the clutch cable. I’m sitting by the side of the road, waiting for the tow-truck, when up drives this cop.

He stops and gets out, doesn’t say a word as he starts writing up a ticket for the car illegally parked in front of the Rabbit.

“This your car?” he snaps, pointing to said VW.

“Yeah, clutch cable is shot. Waiting for the wrecker.”

“Ah. OK then, I won’t write you … hey! Is that your 240!?”

“Yup. Second owner, had it since-”

“I used to have a 240! I did the Chevy 327 engine swap! Man, these are GREAT cars! Mind if I take a look?”

And the cop started pouring over my car, pointing out this and that, and what to look out for. Hands down, the nicest conversation I’ve ever had with a cop standing at the side of the road. (You don’t want to know about the other conversations.)

According to him, there’s a whole underground of guys that are into 240s with big engines, and it seems like here we have one of the more crazy advocates of that group.

Surely the weight distribution and balance is way off, but my God, the acceleration must be explosive.

And that engine note … this is a guy I could grow to like.

There’s more photographic evidence after the jump. Continue Reading…

At this point in time, there are few cars, especially British cars that are better or more sublime then the Jaguar XKs. As the old Jag advertisements said, they had “Grace, pace, space”; in other words, they were gorgeous, fast and had enough room for two people and their luggage.

The first of the lot, the XK 120 was called that because it could top out at 120 MPH. For a British car to openly boast of that level of performance, in 1948 post-war ration deluged England was nothing sort of amazing. Think of if some notoriously poor country today, let’s say Bangladesh, put out a car that could run with a Bugatti Veyron and would cost about two thirds the price. It was that level of engineering achievement.

The 120 was followed by the 140 and the SS and the truly stunning, both in performance and beauty, C-Type and D-Type, finally culminating with the Jaguar XKE, the car that Henry N. Manny III called “The greatest crumpet collector of all time.”

To commemorate and celebrate these fine automobiles, Jaguar is going to be brining out some of their finest rolling stock at this years Goodwood Festival of Speed - one of the automotive year’s “must see” events.

There’s the full list of what cars, driven by which celebrity drivers after the jump.

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OK, so who, exactly, are these guys that work at Galpin ?

Are they, what 14 years old? Because the seem to have the taste of a 14 year old, circa 1983. I have this strong, and nauseating, visual impression of an office filled with Member Only jackets and excessively unbuttoned Rayon shirts and way, way too much chest hair and zodiac medallions on gold chains.

You got to love what they trumpet about this, uh, custom job of there though:

“Two-tone paint scheme, smoked tail lamps, “blacked-out” window trim, wood interior trim and matching black and burgundy leather seats and 22-inch, color-matched Forgiato wheels.”

What?

Forgiato?!

What the hell is that?

Is that some wise-assed half stab at trying to be Italian & continentally hip? Sweet Jesus, are these the guys that invented the name Fiero?

For the strong of stomach, there’s more photographic evidence of the aesthetic atrocities after the jump.

Continue Reading…

The great guys over at Classical Drives have great news: Proteus is coming to the US.

For those of you that don’t know, Proteus is a British car manufacturer that makes spot on rerpos of Jaguar C & D-Types. And I mean spot on. No glass here boys, all aluminum bodywork, hand formed, just like the originals.

And WHAT originals.

I know, I know, sometimes British aesthetic sense is simply terrible, look at what constitutes modern architecture for Britain.

But when they get it right, they produce things like the Spitfire, Jaguar C & D-Types and Quadrophenia.

And seriously, if I had the garage space, I’d think about one of these.

What’s not to like?

You get all the fun of an old race car, with none of the huge potential problems. It’s not worth a Brazilion bucks, so if you screw the pooch, you’re not wasting millions, it has modern (by Jaguar standards) mechanicals, so “authentic” parts are reasonably easy to find, and, these things are sexier then Emma Peel.

Well well, it seems that Jaguar, long rumored to be for sale by it parent FoMoCo, might be bought by Tata, of all people.

All right, all right, knock it off, you dirty minded perverts in the back of class!

For those of you who don’t know Tata is one of the largest car companies on the planet, based in India and not, I repeat NOT, what you think it … er, they, are.

They also have big plans for expanding out of their home market as well as plans to make a car for less than $2,500.

According to “another website” British labor unions are OK with the deal (or is that labour unions?), and Tata also has Fiat on board to help out with production issues.

Who’d a thunk it, Jags built by an Indian car company.

But wait, it gets even better!

Sergio Marchionne, he would be the CEO of FIAT, says that Alfa Romeo could benefit from Tata-Jaguar acquisition.

This just keeps getting odder and odder…