Sunday 25 September 2011

Goodwood Revival #7 Jaguar Foxbat

In the last of this series of blogs about the Goodwood Revival, today we are looking at a unique Jaguar XK150.

01 IMG 2833sc

The XK150 was launched in 1957, updating the XK140 with a one piece windscreen, higher wing line over thinner doors and wider bonnet.

02 IMG 2835sc

The XK150 was powered by the same 3.4 litre double overhead cam iron block straight 6 motor which was available with a standard 180 hp or with an SE spec 210 hp featuring a modified cylinder head.

03 IMG 2834sc

Initially the XK150 was slower than the XK140 until the introduction of a 250 hp 'S' motor featuring triple carburettors and straight ported cylinder head.

04 IMG 2839sc

Legend has it that this 1959 car belonged to an industrial chemist in Swindon called Geoffrey Stevens in the mid 1970's. Mr & Mrs Stevens wanted a car that could carry their two Labradors.

05 IMG 2838sc

Over a period of two years from 1975 to 1977 Mr Stevens set about restoring his rusty XK150 and grafting the back of a Morris Minor Traveller onto the back of his car turning it into a shooting break, with enough space to carry his dogs.

06 IMG 2837sc

The rear lights come from a Mini Traveller, apparently the badges on the boot were hand cut by my Stevens.

07 IMG 2836sc

The Foxbat came up for auction at Goodwood with an estimated value of £30,000 - £35,000, surprisingly it did not find a buyer.

Thanks for joining me on this Foxbat edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me tomorrow when I'll be looking at some of the vehicles that took part in last weekends Palos Verdes Concours, if you think you know your motorcars you might be surprised at some of these most of which I had not heard of until Geoffrey Horton sent me his photo's. Don't forget to come back now !