Ok what is a Jag 1966 Jag xj 13?

No idea where to put this question. What is it? Sounds really rare but a guy I buy from sometimes says a place called Red Barons is selling one next month???

Any ideas?

 

Beautiful car. Do a google, or start here,

http://www.ciltd.co.uk/Replica/xj13.htm

 

There was only one of them and it's in the Jaquar Museum. This must be a replica.

Probably the prettiest Jag ever made. it was built with a midship v12 and hand riveted panels, totalled in a demonstration run and then rebuilt. When Ford bought Jag a few years ago, Jag was the marque at the Monterey historic races and they brought it to the US. I was at the races and the recption dinner that night and got to put my hands all over the thing. Bloody fantastic car...

"The XJ13 was a stunning one-off concept car completed by Jaguar in March 1966 and was designed to compete at Le Mans to develop and promote their new V12 engine. By the mid-60s Le Mans was dominated by mid-engined Sports Racing cars such as the Ford GT40 so it was no surprise when the XJ13 appeared with its V12 mounted longitudinally behind the driver.

But it was developed too late to be competitive and by late 1966 Jaguar was taken over by the British Motor Corporation (BMC). The project was shelved and the XJ13 was put into storage. The next time the car was seen was in 1971 when it was taken to the MIRA circuit to make a promotional film for the official release of the V12 engine. But something went wrong and the car crashed and was extensively damaged, fortunately without injury to Jaguar's famous test driver, Norman Dewis. It was later rebuilt and is now on display in the Jaguar Museum in England."

http://www.jaguarnews.com/8-19-02.shtml
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During a test run the engine blew up so comprehensively that the entire rig and the building it was in were destroyed !

 

Yes, a beautiful car!

Question - why all the louvers and airscoop in the front lid if the car was mid-engine? Were the radiators there?

 

This is taken from www.jdht.com

There is only one Jaguar XJ13 in the world.

Built as a potential Le Mans contender, it never competed in any race. Its development inevitably had to take second place to that of the much more important new saloon car which became the XJ6, launched in 1968. By the time XJ13 was completed, its design had become obsolete against new cars from Ferrari and Ford, never mind the Porsche 917. Anyway, the Le Mans regulations were changing, and prototype cars were limited to engines of 3 litres. To run cars with larger engines, manufacturers had to build fifty examples as production cars (later reduced to twenty-five).
This did not stop XJ13 from being one of the most beautiful racing cars of all time, thanks to the extraordinary work of aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer who had also been responsible for the C-type and D-Type shapes. Nor should anyone doubt the potential of its unique 502bhp, 5-litre V12 engine. During early testing in 1966, it lapped the MIRA test track at over 161mph (259 km/h), establishing a lap record in the hands of Norman Dewis, Jaguar’s legendary test driver, despite the car still being in the development stages. Many of the lessons learned in the development of the racing engine were used in Jaguar's production V12 engine which would be produced for twenty-five years from 1971 to 1996.
There is, however, a twist in the tale of the XJ13. In 1971, having spent four years sitting under a cover in the factory, it was taken out of mothballs and returned to MIRA for some filming. With Dewis back behind the wheel and driving past the camera at well over 140mph, a wheel gave way on the banking, flipping the car end over end twice, before rolling two more times and coming to rest on what remained of its wheels. Dewis, who had the presence of mind to turn off the ignition during the accident, took refuge under the scuttle and escaped unhurt. Though the car was comprehensively wrecked, it was rebuilt and is still run today, albeit at less frantic speeds!
Registration mark: Not road registered
Chassis number: XJ13
Owner: The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
Inventory number: 062/J.22

 

Have a look at the Victory by Design series...on the Jaguar feature, this car is one of the models driven. Excellent piece on a truly excellent car.

 

You might be able to find more info here, including a nice video

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124140

The Auction site link has been changed to this http://www.marketprosco.com/test2/pages/AV1822.html

 

Saw a replica at the vintage event at Elkhart/RA last summer.

The guy had a big plaque in front of the car telling the story. Wish I had taken a picture of what it said, because it was kind of confusing... implied it was a replica yet at the same time gave some claims to being original. Must have been a fluff, if the one and only is in a museum.

 

Here are a couple of pics I took of the replica at the BRIC.

IIRC, the story was it was patterned after a real XJ13 chassis and used a modern Jag V12.
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There is a pretty good article about it in last months Octane magazine.

 

I too have seen the ad for the one for sale at the Red Baron auction. In the Red Baron ad they state that with regard to the XJ13 that “only two remain, one in the museum and the other at Red Baron's to be sold at auction.” (This is deceptive) After seeing this ad, I did some research on the car, including sharing many emails with the former owner and builder of the car, and doing other research on XJ13 replicas in general.

Prior to finding the original owner, my initial research was to call the auction house, where I was told they expect to fetch $250,000 for the car. They gave me some other information, but noted that they were not real familiar with how the car was constructed or what materials were used. I wanted to know if it was an aluminum body and they said they were not sure. (It is now my understanding that on the body only the hood and gas cover vents are aluminum)

Through massive googling I located the prior owner, who seems to be a great guy. He had the car built in the US by a company called Predator, which apparently made at least three of these kits. Its body is constructed primarily of fiberglass reinforced plastic attached to metal tubing. (The original car in the Jaguar museum is riveted aluminum) The motor is the most intriguing and possibly scary part of the equation on this car. It is a standard Jaguar 12 cyl. motor that has been bored out to 7 liters with some 500hp. Apparently, they had to make their own pistons to do this. (I hope they don’t break) It uses a combination of two older 6 cyl Jaguar electronic ignition systems because the mechanic who built the engine was familiar with this system and the Motec system was deemed too expensive at the time. The prior owner apparently liked to show the car and didn’t drive it much. As a result, he could not assure me that it would not overheat in higher temperatures. He also indicated that because of the routing of the radiator tubing from the front to the engine in the rear that the cockpit got pretty warm, even with the AC system. He also said that the windows were fixed and that it did have a top, but that only a midget could drive it with the top on.

My mechanic, after given just a few details, told me that he couldn’t run fast enough away from such a project. (note: he is not a Jag mechanic and Jaguar reliability scared him enough, but the thought of a plastic one, with a modified engine, put him into a coma) Nevertheless, it is a beautiful car and the prior owner seemed like a great guy who put a lot of thought into the car. My concern is that people will bid up this car based on its looks and perceived rarity. The represented rarity of this being the only XJ13 outside of the Jaguar factory, as advertised by the auction house, is incorrect. Companies in England and the US (Proteus and Tempero, to name a few) have made several accurate reproduction XJ13s out of aluminum and there have been several companies that have offered fiberglass products. Currently, http://www.sportscarfactory.com/Pricing.htm is offering a rolling chassis without engine for $47,900.00. If it was an aluminum bodied reproduction like those XJ13s which have been made in England, I could see how it could command a high price.

I was thinking about going to the auction, but after learning all of the above, I think for me to travel to the auction would just be a recipe for frustration. But it sure looks cool.

 

Lloyd,

I know the former owner of the auction car. I was interested in purchasing it from him as he stated to me in the fall of 2005 that he was selling it the following summer. When he sent it to his winter home, the original builder made him an offer and he sold it to him before I was able to make an offer. Oh well, thats how it goes sometimes. After that I researched and found the other two Predators. The owner of the first one built told me the location of the second one, so I called that owner and found that the car was not completed but was an assembled chassis and needed finishing and is for sale. Since then I have found another one (not a Predator) so I am passing on it, but if anyone is interested, PM me for more information as I'm still in contact with the owner. Here are some photos of it.
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Dean,

That is the same car thats up for auction.

 

Truly one of the nicest cars ever built. Ashame only one was built. However, they do make a good replica if you are into that. If I am not mistaken, Allen DeCadinet drove XJ13 in his infamous Victory By Design Jag video. That is the first time I saw her and it was LOVE at first site.

This will be interesting to see what it sells for.

V..

 

A lot of misinformation on the auctions website about this car. They are trying to make it sound like its an original instead of a replica, which it is. Only one original was ever built.....period. This Predator XJ13 replica is one of three that they built. Red Baron's also goes on to say that this car is the only street legal XJ13 in the world. Not true, there are at least a few that are street legal. See the website link below.


http://www.marketprosco.com/test2/pages/AV1822.html

 

This is what I was getting at when I mentioned the "plauque" of the car that was @ BRIC.

People seem very eager to prey on the uniformed!

Beautiful car nonetheless, to bad the XJ13 didn't make into prodution either on a limited or mass basis...

 

The owner at the time you seen it at BRIC had a plaque (which I have a copy of, but haven't been able to upload it for some reason) that talked about the history of the XJ13, but he wasn't trying to say his car was the original. Red Baron's on the other hand are fraudulently deceiving people with the information on their site. Other than the misinformation, this is a great car, just not an original. I will try to upload the photo of the plaque again.
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Thanks for posting.

The car was great to see and hear! The onwer's daughter became very popular by firing it up a couple of times during the car show.

While I'm not trying to be a PITA, the first sentence of the second paragraph should be "The original vehicle.... With the omission of the the word original it impies to me that "The vehicle" refers to the one the plaque is placed in front of.

Obviously not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things, just something I noticed.

 

Scott,

I agree or he could have had another sign stating that the car on exhibit was a replica.

 

I don't mind replica cars as long as they are represented that way. One problem with the plastic xj13's is they lack the oh-so-important rivets of the original. They are an important part of the car. I gues you could glue little plastic rivet heads on the replica.....

 

Nice discussion on the XJ13 & replicas. Lloyd, thank you kindly for putting up the link to The Sports Car Factory web site.

The idea of our offering was to bring a quality replica of this fine car to market at a competitive price, hence the resilient composite body (vs aluminum) on a high strength aluminum alloy monocoque chassis. For those who will be driving their SCF XJ13, the cost to repair body damage is much less with composites than aluminum, which should reduce some anxiety. Once painted with the rivet kit in place, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the composite body and aluminum on sight alone.

Rich Dommers
The Sports Car Factory
Frederick, MD USA

 

"Rivet pattern inked onto body (no extra charge)"

Good idea, even though they aren't real I like the idea.

From the photos on the website (http://www.sportscarfactory.com/Photos.htm)
it looks like a quality reproduction of the xj13,
very nice job.
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I saw the episode of Victory by Design where Alain deCadenet drove the XJ13. The most memorable part of the show was the procedure for starting the car..When he flicked on the fuel pumps, it sounded like two Honda four cylinders were starting up, then when he went to light off the V12................I'm sure anyone within 20 feet of the exhausts of that car suffered some permanent hearing damage. That's one awesome Jaguar!

Cheers,
Aaron
'82 GTSi

 

This keeps getting better. Check out this link.
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/vehicles/2006/10/30/jaguar-xj13-collectible-forbeslife-vehicles_cx_dl_1031vow.html

What a joke. Marketing gone berserk.