What do you get when you combine a wrecked 1968 Jaguar E-Type, the rear end from a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado, a Gasser-style front suspension setup from Speedway Motors, home-brew side rails and the headlights from a 2004 Ford Taurus? The correct answer should be absolutely nothing at all, but apparently one determined builder in Nevada wouldn’t let all those disparate components stop him from creating…this thing. Our money says this is by far the most bizarre E-Type in existence, and now his fever dreams can be your twisted reality for a bargain price of $80,000. So the only question is, buy this or the new F-Type?
Just kidding. The real question is What the f*ck is going on in these pictures?
Allow the wonderful all-caps ad description to explain, and grab some coffee because we’re going on a journey here. The man behind this madness is Peter Harris, a self-identified custom car builder with decades of experience. The story begins 30 years ago, when Harris found himself in possession of a rollover-damaged 1968 Jaguar E-Type 2+2 coupe. So what was there to do except chop the top off, smooth out the wrinkled panels and throw a 302 Ford V8 under the hood?
That combo sounds all right, and Harris claims to have gotten some fun out of it until the unmodified transmission blew up thanks to all that power. Fast forward to 2009, where our hero discovered the joys of rear-engined conversions thanks to a 1971 Oldsmobile 442 with a 455 Pontiac V8 stuffed in the trunk. So he “drag [sic] the Jag into the shop and got started.” (Cue the music.)
So again, if you can still see through the blood pooling in your eyes, what you’re looking at is the body from the Jag, the headlights from a Ford Taurus, a rear axle from a FWD Cadillac, a Gasser-style tube axle up front, a custom wraparound spoiler with integrated taillights, and seats from a Datsun 240Z. Originally this Frankenstein sported a monstrous 8.2-liter Cadillac V8, but that engine “got to be to [sic] much” so Harris swapped it out for a Chevy 350 small-block that’s “not even broke in yet” at 3,000 miles.
That claim plus the current Nevada tags on the rear seem to indicate the thing actually drives, and we’d probably pay to see this go around a track just for the hell of it.
Now, we’re just having some fun here—subjective tastes aside, in actuality, everything seems decently constructed and all that sheet metal work (including the curved spoiler) definitely required a steady and talented hand. He’s also rigged up an impressive cooling system with a front-mounted radiator doing its thing through rail-mounted water lines disguised as side pipes.
But of course, when you put a cherished project car on the internet for an eye-popping $80,000, you have to expect both compliments and criticism. Current bidding is at $2,550, with reserve not met and six days to go.