200 pounds lighter for a 6 over the 12, I thought it was slightly more than that. It doesn’t matter. Considering how much power the 4.0 liter six makes that might be an interesting choice.
There is an XJS running around with the supercharged engine from the XJR.
He’s wicked fast. He bought a burned wreck and dumped the engine from the XJR I and has less than $700 in it.
He spent a weekend sanding off the burn marked etc and just did a DIY vinyl job on it. To my eye it looks nice. Big Jaguar leper’s silhouette on each side with the V12 on the doors roof and front bonnet.
Lacking a roll cage and other safety equipment he can’t race it but that’s his goal. Not bad for a young kid fresh out of college with student loans and entry level job.

 

''I can agree that a DIY driver quality car can be affordable'. ' Well, how very magnanimous of you. l guess its all in the observation, as you seem determined to judge the efforts and ability's of others by your own measure here's another take of it.

lf given a month the best you could do with 30 Jag engines is separate them for scrap and save 3 theres a possibility your opinion may need a tiny bit off adjustment or maybe, just maybe you are not quiet as good a wrench as you think you are...................at the very least there is 27 table bases, thats if indeed all 27 where shagged

.............................and all you could see is scrap! One mans trash and all that........................

 

No it wasn’t a month, it was 15 years of engines filling space in a shop. Plus a month.

I raced Jaguars since 1971 ( mostly 6 cylinders but in the 1980’s started a V12 XKE roadster.) I was constantly on the lookout for spares so some rusty or smashed up car with a V12 came across my path for little money I yanked the engine, tested it and stored it. A friend of mine started pulling V12’s and dumping Chevy crate motors in. That’s where my inventory really started growing. I became snobbish and turned down HE’s
When $500 endurance racing (LeMons, Chump car) started up I got an early XJS From a foreign car junkyard friend who’d couldn’t justify keeping it anymore because he couldn’t get buyers for parts.
I got it ready to go racing. When the powers that be told me how many penalty laps I’d start with, I sold it and started trying to sell off my spares.
Over the next 15 years I was offering good engines/ transmissions for as little as $500 an engine $200 a transmission. Ads in Hemmings/ EBay would sell something every other month or something. After crating them up hauling them to a shipping company I figured I was making about $2.00 an hour on each one I sold.

When I stripped them for metal I netted out $12 per hour. But got them out of my shop. I still have 3 left. 1flathead and two HE plus a few sets of flatheads, a racing transmission, a spare block and a few other odds and ends. ( oh and a 3.8 EType engine in parts)

The really remarkable thing is in all those decades of racing I never blew up a motor, or for that matter wore one out. Of all those junk motors (100+?) I looked at only two were really ruined. One was run out of oil from a loose oil filter and driven until he got home with rods out both sides of the block. The other obviously run without coolant and badly seized. A few I rejected had loose valve seats or broken valves but looking at the cars it was obvious a problem of neglect or ham fisted mechanics.


I figure I’ve got one more race car in me. Once that’s gone, I’ll see if anybody is looking for something and if not just scrap everything.

 

Frenchyd, the Chevy LS is so much cheaper to make horsepower with. Seems like it would be easier to just swap that in to make a nice race car. It's lighter and replacement parts are cheaper and easier to get.

 

Why play golf or paint a picture? You do it because you enjoy it.
As a race car newer is just going to be faster. That is just how things are.
Back when a XJS was new the regular V12 made 100 horsepower more than A small block Chevy. And 32 more horsepower than a 454.
Yes a LS makes a few more horsepower stock than a 6.0 V12. 314 vs 330 but the LS that makes that power is likely a decade newer than a 6.0 V12

Can you hop up a LS and make more, sure, so what? If you spend about what the swap and hop up costs the V12 Will be right there. Plus it won’t be a lump.

Instead it’s a V12!!!!! How special. Ferrari Aston Martin, Lambogini, etc. very rare indeed. How many V8’s? Yawn.
If you absolutely need a V8, why not pull a Jaguar V8? They come Up to 560 horsepower stock.

 

I get the same argument from.my car friends. Swap it they say all day. Why? I enjoy different. I dont need a 10 second street car. I've had those. I have my motorcycle if I want to go superfast but with current laws etc the only.place you can go now is the track. And if i wanted a track car I would use a Mazda miata those are fun and cheap.

 

Yes a Mazda Miata is a good handling sports car that is a great value on the race track. You can really improve your driving skill if you can be competitive with one.

But every man should build a house, raise a child, and race a V12 In his lifetime.
For a few thousand dollars and some time you can do that! A Group A tribute car can be done for remarkably little money. Without formal classification or rules, you can build it as fast or slow as you wish. Start out close to original and make improvements when you can afford to or have the time to.
Unlike many Import or domestic cars Jaguars start off with good strong durable parts.
If Wheel to wheel is too aggressive track day cars are very restrictive about passing. You can drive as fast ( or slow) as you want. Most groups have instructors to help you improve.

 

Hahahaha... Love love that line. And so true...

Hmm. I found my car sitting in a yard. Hadn't been touched in more than a decade. Dirt surface.

My car is running really really nicely. Some may wonder how true that is. I'm driving it today and drove 450miles last weekend and 300 the weekend before. beaUTiful driver and I have some work to do, still, yes.

The car had no floors when I found it, no seats and all of that has been sorted, and more. I've spent nothing like 3000 hrs working on it and not much money at all. Jus say'n. I just got a 2004 xkr portfolio convertible,, it was at bottom of a lake (exaggerating) and it will go to the shop this week coming to have the key matched to the cars computers... No biggie.
I have a 86 928 that sat for five years,,, running a dream today. More work to do but I love doing it...

Me, personally, I think the amount of work and COST is way over stated for some reason I can't fathom. It ain't that bad. That's just me.
​​​​​​

 

You sound like me . I used to buy only if the car was $300 or less. It worked from The late 60’s to about 2015 After that with scrap prices etc I went to $500.
Many people judge value by prices asked in ads like Craigslist, Facebook, Hemmings etc.

As a result they pay silly prices. Then pay others to fix or “restore” Their purchase. So when I talk about racing cheaply they look at me like I’m either a liar or a blethering idiot.

The simple truth is mechanically racing is many times simpler than driving on the street. No air conditioning. No Smog. Turn signals, lights, or power accessories. Yes the suspension needs to be solid, not worn or loose. How hard is that? Luckily like I said, Jaguars come with race worthy parts. A lot of cars, particularly economy cars the parts just aren’t up to the stresses in racing.
In all the decades I raced I never blew up an engine, transmission, or rear end. I raced some very competitive events with 40-50 year old cars.