Race or restore? That is the question.

Early this year I picked up a really nice rust free Jaguar XJS V12 .  Southern California completely rust free,  always garaged,  nice interior, solid paint in my favorite color. Only a color sand and buff away from nice.  

The interior is only a leather conditioner treatment and one small seam restitched away from perfection, even the carpet is original and in nice shape.   Sure the engine needs some reassembly. But for me that’s child’s play. Plus I’ve got shelves full of parts for it. 

 Racing requires me to trash all that, cut off the roof, install a roll cage and re-weld the roof back on. Cut those flawless fenders up to make flares for the wide wheels and tires racing calls for.  

All that cutting and welding will have ruined the paint  so the original paint will be ground off and a new paint job done with numbers and class designation etc.  

Toss away the automatic and replace it with a racing dog ring 5 speed transmission and tiny triple disk clutch and flywheel. Trash the stock exhaust system to put a pair of Chinese made hair driers. Throw out the stock heads and pistons and replace them with a set of flatheads and 7.8-1 pistons in leu of the 11.5-1 stock set. 

Oh it will be tastefully done but to ruin that nice car just because I want to dive inside someone in Turn 5  Elkhart Lake in an outbraking maneuver  or pass on the high side on the turn one banking at Brainerd?  

Why cant I have my cake and eat it too?  

Flip this one and grab another to cut up with the profits?

I don't know... it's not like XJS V12's are thin on the ground or have a huge following.  Everyone says starting with a clean shell always makes a build go easier...  so I say go for it.

Anyone can restore a car. It takes a real man to cut one up.

(Not original.  Read it somewhere but its true)

I don't care what the project goal is, starting with the nicest possible specimen makes for a better journey.  why not just drive it for a while and wait to see what it says to you?

Pete

Don't let me get in the way ........Full speed ahead.......DIVEBOMB's comin' up!!!!

What livery are you toying with ???? group44 is sharp, but I seem to  recall a silver rendition (PLN?) . 

In reply to johndej :

In an earlier post I complained about the fact that project car prices have gone up so drastically  it no longer makes sense.  

Ive been looking since Easter and any candidate is way too expensive.  

Ian F said:

I don't know... it's not like XJS V12's are thin on the ground or have a huge following.  Everyone says starting with a clean shell always makes a build go easier...  so I say go for it.

 

Jaguar XJS V 12s are thinner than you’d think. Some years they made around a thousand for global consumption, one year less!  

In fact they made nearly twice as many XKE’s  and you’ve seen what’s happened to those prices.  

Welding a patch over a rust hole isn’t hard, worst case you do what Group 44 did when they raced Trans Am. They basically made a Tube frame Camero with Jaguar fiberglass panels. That way they were able to set the engine back about a foot. 

NOHOME said:

I don't care what the project goal is, starting with the nicest possible specimen makes for a better journey.  why not just drive it for a while and wait to see what it says to you?

 

Pete

I fix it up original and I’m done racing. I just know that’s how it will go.  

Race race race

also you definitely do not need to cut off the roof to cage it. Do the opposite. Small hole in the floor to drop the cage legs down through then once you’ve welded the top 360 degrees raise the cage up above floor level and slip your spreader plates under the cage uprights and weld them together. No roof damage required!!

In reply to 759NRNG :u

Well I have an aversion to green so it would be hard to do a group 44 tribute car. 

I sort of like the group A car that Tom Walkinshaw raced in Europe 

i like how he stuffed big 17x 12 wheels in the stock, un-flared fenders.  Used the factory intake and exhaust manifolds and still made 500+ horsepower.  

I just don’t like any of that livery.  Maybe more like Lotus’s Black and gold?  

I do want a really light one  so the hood, trunk lid doors,  fenders, will all be carbon fiber.  So a rusty one wouldn’t be a big issue.  cardboard covering any big holes and bondo to smooth things out. Rattle can paint in whatever color is all you need for a pattern to make a splash mold. 

I’m pretty sure I have enough materials to do everything. If not I know where the store is. 

The goal is weight down to around 2300 pounds with 500+ horsepower.  Both do-able 

Corvette wheels are cheap and plentiful  so that’s not a problem and Wilwood calipers just bolt right on.  Probably cheaper than rebuilding the stock ones too!

i even still have the big A frames to put it up on a rotisserie.  ( makes scrapping undercoating and sound deadening off a massively easier project). 

Turn it into the race car, buddy!

I always see multiple running v12 xjs for sale for under 10k. They can be found in really good shape as well. At the price you bought this one I don't see a problem turning it into a race car at all. 

Frenchy, where are you looking? $4,000-$7,000 can land you a pretty clean will running v12 car. I don't see that as a drastic price swing. Especially when you can still find them for under $1000 needing work. Try looking at California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas Craigslist. 

In reply to dculberson : 

Well maybe if your a thin young guy and don’t mind being a contortionist to get welds completely around the tubes  

A smooth cut in the A pillars and rear buttresses, remove the doors sure makes things easier for a stiff, fat old man 

then weld everything back together, grind smooth and Bobs your uncle! 

yupididit said:

Turn it into the race car, buddy!

 

I always see multiple running v12 xjs for sale for under 10k. They can be found in really good shape as well. At the price you bought this one I don't see a problem turning it into a race car at all. 

 

Frenchy, where are you looking? $4,000-$7,000 can land you a pretty clean will running v12 car. I don't see that as a drastic price swing. Especially when you can still find them for under $1000 needing work. Try looking at California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas Craigslist. 

You’re making sense,  I bought it as a project. I went to California to pick it up for a project.  Why should I care that I’m ruining something that in a few years will be valuable just as it is?  

I want to go racing!!! 

While I’ve done a few restorations  most were massively simpler.  I don’t really care that the correct air conditioning compressor had a Y suffix in the third place rather than the P I’ve got.  

I want to hear that big V 12 scream. 

I want to unload it and see the Mustang guy give me the stink eye!  

Take a corner worker for a lap or two and have him gasping for air and white as a sheet 

Who cares that it’s number 218 of that years production?  That in England this would sell for 10 times what I’ve spent?  

Im sure there are Jaguar club members who would love getting the interior.  Who would gladly trade me their rusty fenders for my rust free ones.  Doors, windows, molding, trim, trunk lid,  hood,  all have value. Don’t they?  How long would I need to store them to find someone?  

In reply to frenchyd :

DOOO EEETTT

Are we going to 'builds and  projects' soon???? Lotus black n gold ......did my MGB/GT that way with gold rims

Once we teach him how to upload photos

yupididit said:

Once we teach him how to upload photos

Is that gonna be you, cuz i'm a noob???

yupididit said:

In reply to frenchyd :

DOOO EEETTT

Yes I really should!  Just ignore my frugal nature and waste a good car!  Heck,  like you say there are plenty of them. About half as many as Jaguar XKE’s and I used to scrap them for a few good parts to go racing with. 

Honest I’d buy something for $50 or $100 that was a complete XKE roadster with maybe just a little rust in the rockers.  Today a car in that shape would sell for north of $50,000 maybe $70,000  

But that will never happen again will it?  I passed on a non running Ferrari back in the late 1960’s for $3500

today I’ll bet I could get 3.5 million for it.  ( in that shape) what does a  Ferrari California roadster sell for now days?   

But im not getting younger and the race track is calling!!  The fun, the laughter, of post race exuberance and comradery  won’t happen without the right race car.  

yupididit said:

Once we teach him how to upload photos

Hey, that’s my excuse!  I don’t know how to upload pictures so I can’t ruin a perfectly good car until I do?  

Aw BS if I do a nice job I’ll get someone to take some pictures and share em. 

Don't you have grand kids? Give them $5 dollar to host them on imgur for you.

In reply to yupididit : it took them years to teach me how to send pictures with my texts.  I still would rather hand it to someone else and have them do it  

yep I’m a Luddite 

Okay Frenchy, quit trolling and get started on that race car!

Still on the fence.  A whole lifetime of being frugal tells me not to ruin something nice, wait until I find one that needs a lot more and use that.  

The devil in me demands I get started right now so I can go racing before it’s too late. In the mean time I’m sorting, cleaning, prepping all the race stuff I have to get ready  so I won’t waste time once I do start. 

I’ll be going to my local Jag junkyard Monday to see if they have a candidate at a price I want to pay. 

yupididit said:

Okay Frenchy, quit trolling and get started on that race car!

Black & gold livery please.