Matt Farah recently took Karl Muth’s amazing 1999 Jaguar XJ8L out for a spin. Karl originally purchased the Jag off eBay for $1,201 and since then has completely transformed it into the type of Jaguar he felt it should have been. Karl started by replacing the factory 4.0 L V8 with a 6.2 L LS376/525 crate engine that received a Lingenfelter LS9 head conversion. This increased power to 575 horsepower at the crank or 488 horsepower to the wheels and give the car a better power-to-weight ratio than a F-Type. Another really cool upgrade was the open-gate T-56 Magnum six-speed transmission. Karl says there is about $38K in parts on this build. Watch below as Matt really enjoys himself.
Update 4/18/2016 – New article by Karl on his Jag by Speedhunters with more photos and stats.
Source: The Smoking Tire and Petrolicious (better photos and article written by Karl)
Wow. Congratulations to Karl for crafting such an amazing package. What an outstandingly tasteful and refined end product. I personally love the look of these cars but have traditionally avoided them due to my perceived factory drivetrain and electrical challenges. Is there a build thread for this project?
I don’t think there is. I tried searching for it. The best I did was find the Wheel Well page https://wheelwell.com/profile/550a285cc59d341740b5b312/vehicles/550a289fc59d341740b5b317/specs/