As a avid scanner of anything Jaguar on eBay I was instantly captivated by the following advert appeared in the classic Jaguar section
The ad appeared just as I was setting off on a three week trip to Australia under the heading of Jaguar LeMans the car they never built !
I had been looking for an early XJ6 but the images of this car when finished convinced me this was a good long-term project.
I spoke to the previous owner number of times and he was clearly a genuine seller. The car was based in a Classic Car workshop in Poland with some work having been carried out but it was clear that this was a total rebuild project.
The cars history is quite interesting and I have managed to track down the guy who originally built the car. He went on to work on the XJ220 car and then many notable Lotus cars.
The car was originally built by a chap called Ken Heap during his student years in the late 1960s early 70s and the running gear was from a Jaguar Mark 10 the original engine fitted was a 3.2 L of racing heritage which sadly was stolen back in the 80’s when the car was in storage in Scotland.
Ken was building the car whilst attending university and unfortunately with his new work and family commitments the car was sold on unfinished ( no bodywork ) although its actual route to Poland is a bit sketchy suffice to say the car was not worked on much until it arrived in Poland.
The deal was done over the phone and I had my next project to work on !
The current designer had in the meantime left the classic car workshop where the car was and had set up another company so the first task was to get the car moved which happened but in the meantime the screen ( from a Lola ) was broken ! . The previous car workshop admitted fault and very generously purchased another one from the UK which was shipped to Poland.
I travelled out at the end of 2018 to look at the car and a program and price was agreed with staged payments and a agreed 18 month program.
The above image is the car as bought and the image below is a 3d computer image built up by taking about 20 pictures whilst walking around the car whilst I was sat in it.
Suffice to say I was a lot taller than Ken and didn’t really fit in the car !
A huge amount of design checks were carried out on the existing frame and restoration works started in 2020 and whilst the Covid pandemic put a dent in the program the new body is now being hand beaten and rolled into shape using a metal buck which in itself is a piece of art .
Upon completion of the car it will return to the UK with a view to making some more but that is another story altogether .
WoWadmin February 20th, 2021
Posted In: Second Hand Watches
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