1999 Jaguar Xj8 Base Sedan 4-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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Chip Foose cooks up a custom 1974 Jaguar E-Type for SEMA

Avert your eyes, purists. California-based designer Chip Foose traveled to the 2019 SEMA show to unveil a resto-modded 1974 Jaguar E-Type built at the request of a customer. With a custom design and an American heart, the roadster took over 2 1/2 years to make. Finished in Green Sand, the E-Type was in seemingly good condition when it took up residence in Foose's shop in April 2017; it looks strikingly similar to a 48,000-mile example sold by RM Sothebys in January 2017. Many would drive it as-is, but its anonymous owner had something completely different in mind. Foose and his team modified nearly every part of the convertible's body. Builders punched out a scoop in the hood, extended the rocker panels, made the trunk lid about five inches longer, and gave the rear end a more tapered look accented by flush lights and quad exhaust tips. Even seemingly minor details were hugely important for the enthusiast who commissioned this build. While E-Type headlight bezels are readily available online, the ones on the SEMA car are hand-shaped from brass. Custom-built wheels put a modern spin on the E's original wire knock-offs. The interior looks period-correct thanks to leather upholstery, analog gauges, and a wood-rimmed steering wheel, but the list of changes is longer than the E-Type's hood. Jaguar's emblematic drop-top had a rather busy-looking dashboard topped with a padded cap and peppered with a galaxy of buttons, knobs, and switches. Foose's build adopts a cleaner, simpler design with gauges arranged in a cluster behind the steering wheel, and a chrome strip that runs across the entire dashboard. His team installed new carpet and bucket seats after concealing a modern sound system. To us, the new-look interior has more of a 1950s vibe than the original E-Type's. The changes are more than skin-deep. Tilting the hood forward reveals a Chevrolet-sourced, 6.2-liter V8 engine tuned to 525 horsepower replaces the 272-horsepower, 5.3-liter V12 this Jag came with when it was new. It shifts through a four-speed automatic transmission. Upgraded brakes and a redesigned suspension help keep the additional power in check, though performance numbers aren't available. It hopefully still has its original toolkit, as a factory-made reproduction costs nearly $1,000. There's no word on who commissioned this E-Type, but keep an eye out for it the next time you go to cars and coffee. The V8 exhales through a custom exhaust, so you might hear it before seeing it.

Buy a Jaguar E-Type continuation, get a matching wristwatch

From time to time, automakers release special branded watches. Jaguar and Land Rover are no different. The latest from Land Rover isn't particularly remarkable, but one new Jaguar piece is pretty special. Jaguar partnered with British watchmaker Bremont for a line of watches, the most impressive being a 43mm watch that commemorates Jaguar's continuation series of Lightweight E-Types. Like the cars, only six of the watches will be produced, and they will be offered to the owners of those $1.5 million cars. Each watch features a serial number that matches a corresponding car, and the faces have been designed to look like the instruments aboard the E-Types. The same goes for the hands, which look like the gauge needles. The winding crown also has a tire tread pattern that wraps around the sides, with Jaguar's heritage logo on the top. And these timepieces are built with aluminum left over from the continuation E-Types. On the back is the most impressive part, though. Here is where the watch's automatic winding weight is visible. It's shaped like a vintage steering wheel, and the outer rim is made from real wood. The weight keeps the watch and its exclusive Bremont movement wound. If you can't afford this ultra-limited watch, Bremont has a line of other Jaguar watches with many of the same design cues, at prices ranging from less than $5,000 to more than $11,000. The Land Rover watch is a bit disappointing, since it bears little apparent connection to the vehicles. Zenith, the Swiss company that partnered with Land Rover for the piece, claims the design is inspired by the Range Rover. And Land Rover claims a connection in that a British explorer wore the same series watch while completing an expedition with a pair of Range Rovers. There's also the fact that the watch and the SUV are both made of aluminum, but otherwise, the Zenith watch doesn't look particularly automotive. The box sounds pretty cool, though, since it's fashioned from Land Rover wood and upholstery. Related Video:

Jaguar names its 3 Series-fighter XE, packs it with Ingenium engines

Jaguar is committed to emerging from the fringes of the luxury car market and into the mainstream. Just take a look at where it was a couple of decades ago and where it is now: In the 1980s, it had essentially two product lines, the XJ sedan and XJ-S coupe/convertible), and now it's got the XK coupe and convertible, the XJ sedan, the XF sedan and wagon and the F-Type coupe and roadster. But it's not about to stop there.
Coventry knows that if it's going to take on the German and Japanese heavyweights, it's going to need a compact sports sedan, and it's not about to repeat the mistake that was the X-Type. To that end, it's long been rumored to be developing a rival to the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class - it just hasn't given us much to go on. But that changes right here and now.
At the Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar has confirmed the imminent arrival of its new sports sedan, and along with the teaser image above, has given us some juicy details. For one, it'll be called the XE - fitting nicely alongside its big brothers the XF and XJ in Jaguar's growing sedan lineup. For another, it'll hit markets overseas in 2015 and arrive here in the United States in 2016.