ideas for a burnt xke

further to the thread about the fire, i am going to post my ideas for the solutions for the cars and the building, and get some comments from the fchat braintrust. i will also repost these in the different sub segments in case there are knowledge specific people that are not silver subscribed.

ok, so for the xke.....

that car was not a numbers matching car, had been hit (i was lightly hit by a semi truck in 1993 from the rear- yes scary), was not restored to original color, and we hot rodded it a bit without it being noticeable - lots of newer xj parts (transmission, brakes, suspension), and some other changes to the cooling system, the brake master cylinder, bigger wheels and tires, lower stance, freer flowing exhaust etc. so even in its pristine state 2 weeks ago, it was not a concours winning perfect example, it was a performant driver that fooled most non experts into thinking it was stock. given that on top of all that, it is now well roasted, it hardly seems worthwhile trying to put it back to the way it just was - it would not have the pedigree. however, despite being affected by the fire as you saw in the pics, it actually started up, the drive train is fine, the wheels are fine, basically everything that is not body or interior is fine (may have to replace some hoses and bushings).

so i want to make something different out of it.

i saw an eagle jag a couple years back at goodwood and was very impressed. i looked up their website and fell in love (again) with their speedster, and despite the costs listed on their website, i thought it might be worth a conversation. so i called them and spoke at length this morning with henry pearman - very nice guy btw. and it turns out that the speedster costs about $1 mil, and is therefore prohibitive for this project. however, he gave me some ideas.

Eagle Speedster - The E-Type Redefined // Eagle E-Types

here is the idea.....since our car will need the body and interior completely re-done, why not try to make it into something like the speedster. it wont be exactly the same of course, but i think we can get it to look pretty close to it. i want to have the body work removed, sandblasted down to the metal again, and then fill in all the holes and hook ups for the bumpers - basically french the whole thing front and back, then put in flush side lights, keep the original series 1 covered headlights, put in a chrome tailpipe, put in a lowered windscreen if we can find one (ours is shattered and the top is bent and the A frames probably are too). then have the interior custom made to look as close to the speedster as possible. (pls refer to the site).

i think i should be able to get that done for a much lower cost than trying to get any car back to original spec. comments welcome.

then i need advice on a guy that can do this kind of customizing - preferably somewhere close to naples florida, but not essential.
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or we make it into a lightweight

like this
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tzikouris is the guy we used to make concours spec healey's and jags, but he is too good (ie expensive) for this kind of project....

who else would you guys recommend?

 

ok. i need those guys near florida

 

silver section

 

paul will be down in naples this week to opine on the healey and the e-type.
lets see what he says.....

my own view of that is that paul has a lot on his plate - as usual, and that if we give him both cars we might not see the e-type back for 3 years. i really prefer that he does the healey, and in decent time. the e-type is not really even worthy of him to bring it back to where it was - better to make it into something completely different.

i am voting for the lightweight, and dad is aiming at the speedster. we will see what happens.