Thing of Beauty: 1975 LS1-Powered Jaguar XJ6C

Some might call an LS1-swapped Jaguar heresy. But this pristine example might change some minds.

Regardless about how you feel about cross-brand engine swaps — and I know plenty of folks have strong opinions — any enthusiast will be able to appreciate the stunning amount of work which went into this LS1-powered Jaguar XJ6C. As someone who owned a 1978 XJ6 with a John’s Cars conversion kit, I personally love lumps. So I was blown away when I took a look at this baby.

Now, a little while back, I wrote about how it’s always struck me as funny that the old XJs have never appreciated  — given how gorgeous they are.  One of the members in the forum pointed out that four doors never seem to achieve the conductibility of their two-door brethren, and that made a lot of sense to me. In recent years, we’ve seen a little creep in the prices of the XJC, and I’m wondering if this example might eclipse what people pay for museum-grade stock versions, even thought it’s about as far from stock as you can get.

The factory mill has been replaced with an LS1-based drivetrain which was plucked from a Trans Am, and a custom wiring harness was used to marry the donor car’s ECU with the Jag’s, so all the native Smiths gauges have been retained. But while the beauty of this baby is more than skin deep, the skin is truly something to behold. The coupe was taken down to the bare metal and the owner  — who owns an LA body shop — spared no expense in making its sleek lines pop, eventually finishing it in Porsche Lapis Blue. The interior also looks fantastic. You can almost smell the Connolly leather from the pics.

As you’d imagine with a project of this level, there were a host of improvements to the suspension as well. The car now sports Bilstein shocks at all four corners, a Series III front suspension crossmember, and a 1995 XJS differential and axle, so the brakes are now conventional outboard units, as opposed to the trick inboard ones found on the cars of the era.

Right now, the car is for sale on the always-entertaining Bring a Trailer, and with nearly a week to go, the bidding is  already up to a very healthy 26k. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to how much is must have cost to build this thing, obviously, and I think whoever wins the auction is going to get a bargain. I still think there’s plenty of time for it to climb far higher.

There’s a great conversation about the value of engine-swapped XJs happening on the forum, so I went ahead and dropped a link to this story there. How much do you think this LS1-Powered Jaguar will fetch?