1984 Jaguar XJ-S V12 Lynx Eventer

Conceived as a luxurious and long-legged Grande Routière, the XJ-S, though by no means a small car, afforded precious little in terms of interior space: two adults and an overnight bag being about the limit if its comfortable capacity. In the absence of a factory 'estate' it was left to the Hastings-based engineering company and coachbuilder Lynx to exploit the model's full potential. Renowned for their re-creations of the C- and D-Type Jaguar sports-racers, Lynx had every reason to be confident that such a market existed, given the success of the 'sports estate' concept in the form of the Reliant Scimitar GTE and Lancia Beta HPE. Each Eventer would be hand built to individual customer order and necessarily costly, making Eventer ownership the privilege of a wealthy few. Even today there are few cars that combine near-silent 155mph performance with the luggage capacity of a family estate.

Number '20' of the estimated 67 Eventers produced, this V12-engined example was first registered 'A6 BEB' in the UK. Never accident damaged, the car has been restored twice: in 1999 and again in 2009/2010, the exterior colour being changed from brown to black at the latter date. Every Eventer is different, and this one comes with a copy of the full factory file, including all production details and correspondence with the client, as well as copies of the original invoices for the estate conversion.

The car has recently been converted from right to left-hand drive by CKL Developments of Battle, East Sussex, whose founder and Technical Director, Chris Keith-Lucas, was co-founder and Managing Director at Lynx. CKL also carried out extensive remedial works; areas receiving attention included the rear suspension, rear brakes, fuel injectors, and exhaust system, the latter being replaced in its entirety. CKL's detailed invoice for £14,191 (approximately €16,740) is on file.

Since the purchased by the current vendor a set of original wheels has been fitted to the car. Dated December 2017, a condition report from a well-known French expert is on file, and we are advised that the interior will have been refurbished by time of sale. 'The perfect blend of pace with space', the car also comes with sundry bills relating to the 1990s restoration; original Jaguar manuals; old UK registration documents; Belgian registration papers; and an article about the model from 'Autoretro' magazine (March 2016 edition).