It’s safe, you can come back out now. The big auction throwdown that happens in Arizona is over. Millions upon millions of dollars were traded for some of the most lust-worthy machines ever bolted together, and now that the television cameras are gone and the transport trucks have left, the insanity can be considered over. We instead go on to the next Mecum Auction, held out in Los Angeles, where the star of the show is…a Bugatti Chiron?! Oh, c’mon, you’ve gotta be kidding me!
Well, there’s no way that we’d be let near the Chiron, let alone be able to afford one. All three of us would have to win the lottery and go in together to purchase it. That isn’t just being rich, that’s having F-You money. But that’s one car on the docket for the auction…surely, we can find something better for a more reasonable price, right? Natch…skip the perfect restoration musclecars, side-step the hot rods, and look a bit and sooner or later you’ll find something really interesting. Here, it’s a 1972 Jaguar XJ6 that has been the subject of a small-block Chevrolet swap. 
There is no hiding what has happened here, but what does get us is not only how clean and sorted the 305 looks underneath the hood, but how presentable this first-gen XJ looks. The Maroon Metallic car has fresh paint, one of the cleanest black leather interiors we’ve seen in one of these cars, and low numbers on the clock…if the odometer is true, you’re looking at a 33,000 mile Jag.
Why does this car really appeal when there’s dream machines on the docket? Affordability and the useability. Very, very few people are hunting for a small-block Jaguar at an auction. Chances are good that they are chasing that ’57 Chevy or that 1970 Chevelle that they’ve always wanted. And this XJ is very useable…look at the millions upon millions of GM products that used the 305/TH350 combination. Pair it off in a sedan as striking as a Series 1 Jaguar, with it’s stately but slightly aggressive looks all hunkered over the Jaguar wheels, and if you can’t see the winning formula here, then there’s not much we can do to help.
Oh swing that mighty hammer and smash this car into the ground…
Just a 305??? That’s like getting an appendix transplant.
Clearly whomever wanted the transplant was after reliability and not performance…alast the 305 comes out real easy and a 350/383/406 drops right in place. I won’t even mention doing an LS swap for fear of blowing up our UK friends head.
Mad Chevy Hatin’s head already blowed up a little on this one. Geordie, would you smash the whole car due to the engine? Isn’t that like blaming the victim?
Needs a 6-71 blower for trips through the car wash….
My first Chevy powered Jaguar was a ’72 also, very much like this one. My second one, a ’79, got a 383 and 700R4. Write up on britishv8 web page. http://www.britishv8.org/Other/TimHoffman.htm
Those Jags were horrible. Electrical & quality control nightmares. Only salvation was a SBC transplant.
If that great steaming POS A6 a/c compressor was replaced with a Denso unit the F/R weight distribution would shift aft by 5% and the quarter times would drop by 0.5 sec.
The 305 is a head scratcher… I\’m guessing this is an older swap. An LS/4l60 swap and a bit of rewiring and this would be a great daily driver.