V12 engines on the custom stage: Jaguar

The Lincoln-Zephyr is not the only twelve-cylinder engine that is popular with custom builders. Many cats, especially those working in the t-bucket style, like to use V12 from… Jaguar! The fact is that at one time this wildcat proved to be an excellent quarter-mile engine. In addition, oddly enough, it is relatively cheap. And, probably, it’s time to fully reveal my cards: I’m not against Japanese or European V-shaped engines. A monsieur like me has a very delicate taste, which sounds like this: any V-shaped, but in the right execution. Proper execution means that the engine must either breathe freely or use supercharging. In extreme cases, a combo of turbo and superchargers. By and large, anything that meets these simple criteria regarding the engine can attract my attention.

Jaguar conquers America

Let me start with this 1923 hot rod from the state of Michigan. The European engine is covered with two Edelbrock 500 CFM carburettors with custom air intakes. Custom interior, custom frame for Jaguar three-speed transmission – this car is a real work of art. And most importantly, having recently been sold on eBay, this hot rod has dozens of photos in excellent resolution that allow you to view it in great detail.

Another somewhat controversial but extremely interesting project that deserves at least minimal attention is the 1912 Ford Model T named the Tasmanian Devil. It was built by Carl Schmidt from North Adams, somewhere in Massachusetts. The trick is that Comrade Schmidt is a carpenter by vocation and builds furniture, not cars. That’s why this hot rod is made entirely of wood. To be more precise, from a sleigh. Not those that are firewood for peasants who are always triumphant for no reason, but others that are for Santa Claus and other reindeer. With a body, that is. Those open seats for passengers facing back were located directly behind the horses. And that huge leather “trunk” is some kind of heavy cargo bag from the days of stagecoaches. All of this was attached to the racing frame and polished by Carl personally, so that from Ford, in fact, only the radiator housing is here. And who was engaged in the engine is not known for certain. What the hell is not joking, maybe Karl Schmidt decided to stretch his talented hands towards metal?

Unfortunately, all this dubious splendor has only a few photos of not the highest quality. But the Jaguar V12 is still in place. I still haven’t decided whether I like this bucket or not. By the way, please note that there is no letter N on the radiator grille, although by all indications it should be. Either it fell off, or someone decided to take it as a souvenir…

A wild cat in its territory

Well, for British hot rod enthusiasts, the Jaguar engine is even easier to get than the Lincoln-Zephyr, and therefore there are a lot of very evil twelve-cylinder custom engines growling in the fog. For example, Purple Pain is another find on eBay. The right-hand drive bucket from Britain is loaded with a 5.3-liter Jaguar V12 with six Dellotro carburetors. There are few details, but it is worth noting such things as the discs from Weld, popular among muscle cars, on which this purple monster has accumulated 900 miles of mileage at the time of sale, and the removable roof that comes with it. In fact, every hot rod, if it’s even slightly planned like a road car, has a removable roof. Usually tough. It is quite possible to install it alone, but you will need things like a garage and a crane. Of course, there are no photos with the roof installed. In general, this cat is a slightly less cool photographer than the owner of the first bucket in the article, but you can still view the car without any problems.

And somewhere in the vastness of the Foggy Albion there is a semi-legendary monster named Jagster – I found only a few photos, one of which is no good, and not a single rear view. Although I spent a lot of time searching, perhaps even more than I should have.

But suddenly there were several videos, and one of them shows that this hot rod accelerates to 140 miles in just a few seconds!

(Update December 17th, 2024)
In 2022, someone finally walked around Jagster, recording a video at the same time – and, fortunately, posted this video on YouTube. So many thanks to the @stevesclassicvehiclesuk channel for the good, detailed footage that finally allows us to look at this hot rod from all sides.

And the last of the British, but my favorite among all hot rods with Jaguar’s V12 has only two low-quality photos. But he is the editor’s choice, so to speak. Because it’s supercharged, and I love them.

(Updated on December 17th, 2024)
Starting in 2022, a hot rod with an inflated Jaguar engine began to be put up for sale, as a result of which we now have much more than two low-quality photos. Now we have a whole gallery and one video, so everyone can finally see this beautiful car in all its details!

Nevertheless, we managed to extract a few technical details from the description of the most recent lot. It became known that the rear axle of the car is from Jaguar, and the front is a custom combination of a beam and a four-lever suspension. It is separately noted that the controls are extremely responsive and the car is easy to drive. And yes, they confirmed that the engine is British, 1973, 5.3 liters, supercharging and two Holley carburetors. Unfortunately, all this information is clearly not enough for a separate article, and therefore we will limit ourselves to a small update.

The cat in rat’s skin

One of the fans of the rat rod style did not pass by the Jaguar engine. I don’t particularly like rats myself, but it would just be unfair to leave it outside the scope of this article. Besides, I really liked the figure on the radiator grille. The figures on the hood are our everything! Ahem… So, this rat is actually a 1934 Oldsmobile. It’s the same 5.3-liter Jaguar V12 from the 70s. The seller honestly admitted that the unit likes to mark the territory – the others were silent, so the devil knows how common this problem is among these engines. Carburetor from the Holley Double Pump series and electric fuel pump from them, GM TH400 transmission, automatic, Jaguar independent rear suspension, disc brakes from GM. A good symbiosis of European and American spare parts, all on classic rubber with a white sidewall.

And we have a video again! If you look closely, you can see that the Jaguar on the radiator grille jumps at the driver, not away from him, when the car is moving. This is a feature: at about 30 miles per hour, the figure turns 180 degrees. Aerodynamics, damn it!

Concluding the article, it is worth saying that Jaguar is not the only European twelve-cylinder engine. At least a more modern – and therefore more affordable – engine from Germany is looking at its place on the stage. And exotic lovers prefer a rare GMC engine, or really crazy units from Allison or Rolls-Royce. Someone might ask: but isn’t Rolls-Royce Germany? Oh no, I’m not talking about the modern Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, which is entirely BMW. I’m talking about the original Rolls-Royce Limited, which is from Manchester. But even with that in mind, my dear comrade, you probably don’t even suspect what exactly those who have straight arms and too much free time are stuffing into their cars…

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