Every day, BangShift scours the interwebs looking for cool, crazy and the just plain weird to offer up to our readers. And sometimes, we’ll find something that’s all of those in one convenient package. Let’s cut right to the chase here: you clicked on this article because you saw THIS:

Uhh… WOW, what is going on here? And yes, those are Ford Taurus headlights.

Well, that’s something. Actually, that’s A LOT of somethings. This car has DNA from all sorts of places, including (but not limited to) Jaguar, Cadillac, Ford, and Chevrolet’s respective parts bins. And we are going to dissect it all together. This vehicle graces the “Other Makes” section on eBay, and out of all the vehicles on there, it’s designation as “Other” is the most deseving we’ve seen in a long time.

Are you ready to figure this out with us? Here we go!

According to the seller, he built the car after he obtained a wrecked 1968 Jaguar XKE. The Jaaaaaaaaaag started life as a 2+2 Coupe, which a friend rolled. After the accident, he acquired it and stored it away for a rainy day, or until he could figure out what to do with it. For a while, he just cut the roof off, stuffed in a Ford 302, and enjoyed it as-is, but the transmission blew up and it sat for a while. Too far gone to restore, he cut it up some more, got the welder out, raided a number of parts bins, and this is the result. One man’s trash is another man’s… uhh… weird project car. Yeah!

From the rear, there’s a lot of shapes. That’s really the best way to describe what’s happening here. Shapes. Anyway, the brake lights are part of the spoiler design, and the barrel wheel flares hide some wide meats. Poking out above it all is the signature upper plenum of a Chevy TPI 350. It sort of reminds us of a V8-powered race boat in a way.

The front and rear clamshells both open to reveal the various components beneath. In front, you’ll have access to the cooling system and brake master cylinder, while the rear gives way to the engine cradle and rear suspension. Another curious design element: those “side pipes” you see are coolant pipes that run from the front radiator to the rear engine.Another note: the seller claims it’s all metal, even the wing.

Here’s another view of the rear of the car. From this angle, things look pretty good! You can see the rear dumps for the exhaust, as well as the engine cradle poking out from the bottom. And while I’m not a fan of third brake lights on builds like this, at least this isn’t one of those E.T.-looking aftermarket ones from the late 80’s that you still see in the rear windows of old cars at car shows.

Stepping inside, it’s not as bad as one would expect. The seats are from a Datsun 280Z, and there’s real wood on the dash that doesn’t look as awful as most real wood dashes do on other “custom” cars on eBay. That PepBoys steering wheel is pretty terrible, but it was probably laying around the garage, so on it went. “Stuff laying around the garage” seems to be the theme of this car.

Surprisingly, the custom door cards flow nicely with the rest of the interior, and look ok when the doors are open or closed. Little touches like that indicate that the builder had some talent when he slapped this thing together.

In the “frunk” area, it’s all business and zero storage. Up here, there’s an aluminum radiator, the brake master cylinder, a fuel cell, and two batteries. All of this bulk does it’s best to offset the cast iron lump out back.

Speaking of that lump, here it is! When the car was originally built, the engine was up front. But the builder seemed to be influenced to move the engine to the back after spending some time with a rear engine Olds Cutlass (seriously, where does this guy hang out?), and sourced a FWD 70’s Cadillac Eldorado with a 500ci V8. A blower got installed, and the entire front frame of the Eldo was chopped up and mated to the XKE. At some point, the 500 came out due to “too much power”, and in went a much tamer TPI 350. It still uses the FWD TH425 3-speed automatic. Somehow, it all works. Driveability be damned, this thing would have been WAY cooler with a supercharged 500ci V8 sitting out back!

Just in case there was any doubt, yes, it was a real Jaguar XKE before all of this. Some of our British readers are probably twitching uncontrollably right now. That’s totally normal, and it should pass.

So, there you have it, this is a very strange car. It’s the result of an unfortunate accident and a chance meeting with another very strange (but very cool) rear engine Olds, and a guy’s vision of how to make it all work. And yes, it could be yours. It’s up on eBay right now. And bust out your wallets, because his “Buy It Now” price is $80,000. Bidding is sitting at around $2000 at the time of this writing, and the reserve obviously has not been met. Obviously, the builder has some clear talent, having built this car out of spare parts in his garage. In a way, it’s pretty cool. But in a lot of other ways, it’s just plain strange.

What do you readers think of this thing? Is it cool in a “dare to be different” sort of way, or should all of its various parts be returned to the vehicles they came from? Let us know in the comments section!

Here’s the ad:

 

HI TO ALL, MY NAME IS PETER HARRIS I HAVE BEEN A CUSTOM CAR BUILDER FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS AND I AM SELLING MY OWN 1968 JAGUAR, I GOT THIS JAGUAR OVER 30 YEARS AGO FROM A FRIEND WHO ROLLED IT IN A ACCIDENT AT THAT TIME IT WAS A 2+2 COUPE, I REMOVED THE ROOF  PUT IN A 302 FORD ENGINE AND DROVE IT FOR A FEW YEARS TILL THE TRANS WENT THEN IT SAT TILL ABOUT 8 YEARS AGO, I GOT IN MY SHOP A 1971 OLDSMOBILE 442 WITH A BLOWN 455 IN THE REAR AND IT WAS FUN TO DRIVE SO I DRAG THE JAG IN TO THE SHOP AND GOT STARTED.

THE REAR FRAME IS A 1974 CADILLAC FRONT WHEEL DRIVE WITH 2″ X 4″ 120 WALL RAILS ADDED TO MAKE A FULL FRAME, ROCKERS ON THE BODY WERE OPEND UP FOR THE RAILS TO SLIDE UP IN TO, I WANTED SOME THING WILD SO I INSTALLD A FULL BUILT 500ci 671 BLOWN CADILLAC ENGINE, I DIDDENT HAVE THE JAG FRONT SUSPENSION ANY MORE SO I INSTALLED SPEEDWAYS GASSER STYLE TUBE AXLE AND RACK AND PINON STEERING AND 4 WHEEL POWER DISC BRAKES,  THE CAD TORSION BARS WHERE REMOVED FOR COIL OVER SHOCKS.

FRAME IS WHITE WITH SILVER HAMERTONE POWDER COAT.

THE CAD 500 ci WAS FUN BUT GOT TO BE TO MUCH SO 2 YEARS AGO I INSTALLD A 1990 CHEVY TPI 350 ENGINE COMPLETELY REBULIT WITH EDELBROCK HIGH FLOW ALUMINUM PERFORMER HEADS, WIREING FORE CAR IS EZ WIRING, TPI WIRING IS PAINLESS ONLY ABOUT 600 MILES ON THE 350 NOT EVEN BROKE IN YET AROUND 3,000 MILES ON THE CAD TURBO 425 AUTO TRANS.

ALL BODY MODS ARE DONE IN SHEET METAL NO FIBER GLASS WAS USED THE WING IS ALLSO SHEET METAL, WINDSHEELD IS A STOCK JAGUAR ROADSTER, FRONT HEADLIGHTS ARE 2004 FORD TAURUS, TAILLIGHTS ARE SPEEDWAYS CATS EYE LEDS, IDIDIT KEYED TILT COLUMN, CENTERLINE WHEELS, DOLPHIN GAUGES, HURST GATE SHIFTER, DASH IS SOLID BIRDS EYE MAPEL, SEATS ARE DATSUN 240Z, FRONT BONNET AND REAR DECK OPEN AND CLOSE WITH LINEAR ACTUATORS.

RAIDO IS ALPINE WITH HIDDEN ANTENNA.

WHAT LOOKS LIKE SIDE PIPES ARE THE WATER LINES THEY ALSO HAVE A SWICHED INLINE ELECTRIC WATER PUMP TO HELP THE FLOW THROUGH THE ALUMINUM RADIATOR.

PAINT IS VIPER RED.

HAD PLANED A TOP BUT NEVER GOT AROUND TO MAKING ONE.

I DO NOT WANT TO SELL THE CAR BUT DO TO AGE AND HEALTH IT IS JUST TO HARD GETING IN AND OUT OF IT AND I HAVE TO MANY CARS SO IT MUST GO.