Does $57,330 for a 1997 Jaguar XJ6 sound a trifle stiff to you?
The old home-equity line won’t stretch quite that far? You’d love a Jag, but your name isn’t Pippen or Jordan and the Pritzkers haven’t offered to adopt you?
No need to hyperventilate. Try a little ingenuity, with a healthy dose of perseverance and you’ll own that soft-purring Brit luxury sedan for $16,000–tops.
Imagine yourself dressed in Harris tweeds, nestled deep in leather hides. With your driving cap tipped at a jaunty angle, you feel fine burled walnut under status-itchy fingers as you run your hand across the dash.
The catch?
Your reconditioned 1985 XJ6 will boast Jaguar cachet and torque to burn, yet none of the pre-Ford headaches because it’s powered by a new Chevrolet 350 V-8.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jag purists snigger at Jaguar-to-Chevy conversions. They insist such changeovers negate any value the car might have as a collectible.
Lars Carlson, a mechanic at Tri-Star Motor Cars in Worth, insists, “True Jaguar nuts won’t even look at a conversion. They’re totally without resale value. And I don’t understand why anyone would even consider replacing a Jaguar engine with a Chevy small-block.
“I’ve seen a few good conversions, but I’ve seen more bad ones and the truth is I can rebuild your Jaguar engine for a heck of a lot less than a conversion costs. I have Jaguar engines out there with 180,000 miles on ’em not using a drop of oil.
“I just don’t get the conversion people. I sometimes think they’ve been smoking their old Nikes!”
Mark Miller, vice president of public affairs for Jaguar North America, is even more emphatic: “Clearly, if Jaguar felt it made sense to put Chevy engines in Jaguars, we’d put them in to begin with. Fact is though, we believe Jaguar engines should be in Jaguars.
“This isn’t a legal issue with us, but we don’t quite understand why anyone would take a perfectly good Jaguar and put a Chevy engine in it.”
Obviously, Carlson and Miller have yet to meet the Radovich brothers of Dallas. John and Brian, owners of John’s Cars at 800 Jaguar Lane, have frittered away 20 years perfecting the GM transplant for Jags.
The Radoviches send out “three or four” copies of their John’s Cars Conversion Kit catalog daily, to potential customers in such far-flung locales as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Japan and even the United Kingdom. (Yes, Percy, there are Chevy-powered Jags bombing up and down the M-6 motorway.)
John Radovich acknowledges Jaguar’s position but maintains that his kit is the best way for average drivers to enjoy aging Jaguars.
“Understand, I’m talking about Jaguars built before Ford bought the company,” says Radovich. “Old XJ6s, XJSs and XJ12s have beauty, comfort and luxury . . . but these Series III Jaguars also overheat and leak oil, and the Lucas electricals are prone to shorts. The transmissions are weak . . . I could go on, if you like.
“Sure, it’s nice to have a Jaguar engine, but the fact is GM parts are cheaper, more available and any good service technician can work on a Chevy engine and drivetrain. We think that’s an important consideration when you live in a town without a Jaguar mechanic because something as finicky as a Jaguar takes a lot of patience. An old Jag needs you to check her every day, and Americans aren’t that way. We expect dependability. We expect to jump into a car, turn the key and, `ba-boom, let’s go!’ “
For most Jag conversions, Radovich recommends a new Chevy Goodwrench 305- or 350-cubic-inch power plant. He also offers Big Block plans for those hankering to sneak a 454 into an old XJ12, and his preferred transmission is a GM Turbo 350 or Turbo 400.
John’s Cars will perform the conversion at its Dallas shop for $7,700 out the door–you supply the Jaguar.
A home conversion kit costs $1,200 to $2,000 but tackling a Jag-to-GM conversion is not for the faint of heart.
Though no welding is involved, this is no job for oil-change jockeys. At the very least, you’ll need a hoist to lift the engine.
Seth Baker, a Toshiba manager who moved from Dallas to the Chicago area in 1991, took “two or three months” to complete the switch-over of a 1976 Jaguar XJ12 to Chevy power.
“I’m probably not a good example to follow,” says the mechanically inclined Baker, who allows he once shoehorned a small-block Chevy V-8 into a 1948 Willys Jeep.
“I bought my XJ12 for $6,500 with the idea of doing a conversion. Later on, I picked up a 1977 Monte Carlo for $700 and pulled everything I needed. Engine, alternator, water pump, starter, etc. And I used the whole drivetrain, including the drive shaft, which I had cut down by six inches or so.
“I loved my XJ12-Chevy and can’t say enough for the John’s kit. I drove the car five years and probably put on 85,000 miles before the rust just about ate her up. Five years of Chicago winters was all she could take.”
Baker makes an important point: high-mileage 1980s Jaguars can be had in the Chicago area for $4,500 to $6,500.
But the best option for a long-lasting Chevy conversion is a rust-free XJ6 or XJ12 that has spent its entire life in California or Arizona.
The July 17 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle included classified ads for six Jaguar XJ6 models built between 1983 and 1988. The average price? $6,383.33. Add about $10,000 for a new engine, shop labor and the John’s Cars One Stop Shopping Deal.
(Carlson says conversions require about 50 hours of labor once you find a mechanic willing to take the job. Brian Radovich says it’s closer to 30 hours for carbureted engines but 50 hours for fuel-injected units.)
Dean Spears of Newark, Del., is selling his royal blue 1983 XJS after putting 27,000 miles on a Chevy 350 conversion, 98,000 miles in total.
His asking price is $9,000, though Spears is realistic enough to know “there’s little market for this sort of car. I personally enjoy the styling and handling. My XJS looks nice and runs nice, but the car is a hybrid and perhaps a little exotic for most buyers.
“My wife is the one who first spotted this model. We were on our honeymoon in London when she admired the car. I looked under the hood, saw 12 cylinders and thought no way, I can’t deal with this engine. A few years later I had a chance to buy an XJS with engine problems. It already had GM air conditioning and a Chevy transmission, so I thought . . . why not do a complete conversion?”
Why not, indeed?
But what about the snobs? The purists? The blokes in fancy driving gloves and racing slippers?
Keep your bonnet down and your mouth shut and they’ll never know you’re powered by Chevy.
Lean back and wave. Act like you belong.
And if they do find out . . . so what? After all, who really cares?
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For a copy of the Conversion Kit catalog, contact John’s Cars at 800 Jaguar Lane, Dallas, Texas 75226, 800-866-5247, www.johnscars.com
