History

The Jaguar XJS built from 1975 to 1996 is one of the British marque’s most recognizable grand tourers. With its three body styles and prominent rear flying buttresses, the XJS offered something for all British car enthusiasts. From 1981 to 1991, the XJS was renamed the XJS HE thus creating the model’s second generation. The new High-Efficiency V12 under the hood improved fuel economy over the pre-HE XJS while the new “Fire Ball” combustion chamber increased its power to 295 hp or 263 hp in North America.

In 1982, aftermarket repair and tuning shop Lynx Engineering turned their sights to modifying the recently-released Jaguar XJS and came up with the Lynx Eventer, a shooting brake version of XJS. The conversion originally cost £6,950 ($10,500) then or £20,933 ($27,237) today, making it a fairly pricey project. The 14 week process of converting a regular XJS to a shooting brake involved removing the flying buttress roof, relocating the fuel tank, and stiffening the rear suspension. In place of the trunk, the Eventer got a rear liftgate that, with the rear seats folded flat, created a much needed 6-foot-long cargo area. A total of 52 Eventers were built by Lynx prior to the XJS’s 1991 facelift and 15 more after the facelift with 18 of them being left hand drive and 49 being right hand drive. The last Eventer left the Lynx workshop in 2002 for a grand total of only 67 units produced.

This Car

This particular example, Chassis # SAJJNAEW38C111456, is the 13th pre-facelift conversion that Lynx Engineering built and it was delivered to its first owner in Chandler’s Ford in the Borough of Eastleigh in Hampshire, England on November 1, 1983. The car is finished in a gray exterior over a contrasting tan leather interior with a red stripe dividing the chassis in half. The first owner kept up the suggested maintenance schedule to a T, servicing the car at both certified Jaguar dealerships and regular shops throughout England. In September of 1994, the car changed hands but the maintenance continued to be kept up by the second owner as well. Once the original service record booklet was filled up, the owner sent out for additional record pages and continued using it until the car reached 163,939 kms (101,866 mi) on December 11, 1997.

On January 18, 2000, the car was sold to its first US owner and was delivered to the Newark, NJ port on February 25, 2000. At some point after that, this Lynx Eventer was abandoned in a field still wearing its British plates and the odometer reading 169,332 kms (105,218 mi), meaning it was left there just 6,000 kms (3,728 mi) after its last service in the UK. This rare shooting brake will need a full restoration after sitting for around two decades to get it roadworthy once more. We have taken the liberty of changing all four tires, cutting the exhaust, and freeing up the seized brake pads to allow for easier loading and moving around.

Upon purchase, the new buyer will receive both service record booklets, the registration & MOT certificates, available sale & import paperwork, JDHT Certificate, as well as the original spare tire. A rare and worthwhile opportunity to acquire a project XJS Eventer.

The Market