Project Mud-Type Jaguar Gets Off-Road Tires
In the third episode of Car Throttle‘s ambitious attempt to turn a Jaguar X-Type into an off-road safari machine, it gets some true off-road kit.
In the third episode of Alex Kersten’s voyage into Jaguar sacrilege, things start to get real. Raising the ride height and fitting straight pipes was just the start. Now they are into the most important modification to make on any vehicle: proper tires. Unfortunately, raising the Jag didn’t make enough room so the rear wheel arches have to be cut and beaten into shape to fit the new tires. The tire they have gone with is the Goodyear Wrangler, which is a solid on or off-road all-terrain tire designed for light trucks. From our experience, they don’t look as aggressive as they act when they get into slippery conditions, and on-road they are reasonably quiet and well behaved.
However, the snorkel isn’t as straightforward. The first issue is finding room inside the engine bay. Rather than try and move the fuse box or anything else that would create a headache, they do the smart thing and go for flexi-hose to route it around the engine. Once they hack a few holes in the wings to get the snorkel into the fresh air, it comes together quite well.
As Project Mud-Type is going to be a rally/safari machine, it also gets a custom-built roof rack. For the main structure, they use old-school 25 mm box-section. For the walls, they use 20 mm galvanized conduit as there really is no such thing as overkill in off-roading, and a safari rack tends to get battered by tree branches and rocks. Once it’s on, along with the tires and snorkel, Project Mud-Type is starting to look the part. We can’t wait to see how it actually behaves with a bit of mud under the tires.
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