1975 Jaguar XJ Coupe 6.0 V12

[craigjm]

OK so I thought I would start my own thread. Been looking for one of these for a while and I stumbled upon this in early November. 1975 XJ Coupe modified with the following (so far) -

Mechanical -

6.0 V12 Jaguarsport engine from an XJR-S
XJ Restorations sports suspension (Eibach springs, GAZ shocks, Poly steering rack bushes and superflex wishbone bushes)
AJ6 Engineering performance ECU
AJ6 Engineering large throttle bodies
AJ6 Engineering High torque manifolds
AJ6 Engineering large bore straight through stainless steel exhaust


Looks wise -

17 inch wheels and widened arches (wheels not to my taste will be replaced)
Modified lower front end to feature mesh grille upper and lower and driving spots
Series 3 rear lights and plinth
Series 3 dashboard and centre console
Racing mirrors
Leaper (yuk - will be going when resprayed)

No idea what the colour is and it has been resprayed at some point from its original Dark Blue that it wore when it left the factory. Car has no significant history in terms of provenance. The idea is to have some fun with it.

The Plan

So what I plan to do with it over the next 12 months is -

Remove the vinyl roof and bare metal spray the car - unsure of colour yet will update
Rebuild and retrim the interior as it desperately needs it! - unsure of colour combo as yet will update
Re-veneer all of the wood in piano black
Replace steering wheel with a smaller, thicker piano black wood wheel to match the veneer
Fit as much modern tech as I can subtly hidden so the car will have stuff like the following -

Apple carplay
Bluetooth
Voice control
Sat Nav
DAB
Reversing camera
Decent speaker package
Heated seats
Air conditioning
Auto dip interior mirror
Cruise control
Remote central locking
Tyre pressure monitoring
Rear electric sunblind
Push button start
Front cupholders to replace ashtrays
Universal remote
Heated washer jets
Puddle lights
Mood lighting
Uprated headlamps

Lets see how it progresses over the year.

And now for some "as-is" pictures























I will update this as I go along.

[Captain Smerc]

Magnificent motor, keep it coming

[castex]

Beautiful car and very much looking forward to the wheel replacement. What do you have in mind?

[craigjm]

castex said:

Beautiful car and very much looking forward to the wheel replacement. What do you have in mind?

Not sure yet but they will need to be 16 or 17 because of the size of the arches and the amount of power meaning that going back to the standard type 15 inchers is a non-starter

[castex]

That's a shame because the steel hubcaps really look the part. Cross spokes also suit and I'm sure you can find something fetching by BBS.

[RetroWheels]

Bookmarked.
I like it , there's lot's of potential with this particular car, Series XJ12's are lovely things this one's a touch different from the norm so i'll be interested to see how you develop it .

[bomma220]

That is absolutely stunning.

Please let me know if you ever intend to sell it.

ps if you do, do you happen to know if it's possible to live a reasonably normal life with one kidney?

[leglessAlex]

This is so amazing, and from the looks of those modifications you want to do it'll be even better.

Are you going to try and keep it all Jaguar?

[williamp]

Love it. Agree with the wheels. And I would go for a darker red interior (maybe with black seat inserts??) But keep the look of the interior period.

[djneils98]

stunning car OP

[LanceRS]

Very nice, are you able to reinstate the Series 2 grill, rear lights and boot lid?

[griffin dai]

Very very cool!!!

[craigjm]

leglessAlex said:

This is so amazing, and from the looks of those modifications you want to do it'll be even better.

Are you going to try and keep it all Jaguar?

What do you mean?

[craigjm]

LanceRS said:

Very nice, are you able to reinstate the Series 2 grill, rear lights and boot lid?

I dont want to. Im going to change the mesh in the grilles when I sort it out in the summer so its brigher. I prefer the series 3 rear lights and boot. Im going to change the overiders on the rear bumper to the same as the fronts so that it doesnt foul the light as it currently does.

[leglessAlex]

craigjm said:

leglessAlex said:

This is so amazing, and from the looks of those modifications you want to do it'll be even better.

Are you going to try and keep it all Jaguar?

What do you mean?

As in, the list of things you want to add like cruise, heated seats, nav and so on, will you be getting them from Jaguar cars or just from wherever you can?


Have you read mwstewarts threads on his Fiesta and M3? Sort of like that, although now I think of it I'm not sure it would be practical given the age of the base car.

[stewy68]

Just plain gorgeous! What about bespoke steel wheels (like original only 17's)?

[craigjm]

leglessAlex said:

craigjm said:

leglessAlex said:

This is so amazing, and from the looks of those modifications you want to do it'll be even better.

Are you going to try and keep it all Jaguar?

What do you mean?

As in, the list of things you want to add like cruise, heated seats, nav and so on, will you be getting them from Jaguar cars or just from wherever you can?

You cant because as you say the age of base car makes that not possible. What I am going to try and do is make sure everything blends in / switches are hidden or discreet etc. I have a supplier in mind for everything on the list. We will see.

[leglessAlex]

craigjm said:

You cant because as you say the age of base car makes that not possible. What I am going to try and do is make sure everything blends in / switches are hidden or discreet etc. I have a supplier in mind for everything on the list. We will see.

Yeah, that makes loads more sense now I think about it. Sounds like it's going to be awesome either way

[craigjm]

stewy68 said:

Just plain gorgeous! What about bespoke steel wheels (like original only 17's)?

Nah, I want the exterior to look as sporty as possible. I have seen somewhere that makes Kent, Dunlop and Hallibrand replicas in 16s and 17s. Will end up being something like that.

[Janluke]

Love it