Jaguar Sacrilege Week continues with this seemingly innocuous creation, one of Jaguar’s most extravagant luxury sedans crafted into a 4-door, 4-seater convertible. Oh, and there’s a Chevy small-block and transmission underneath. Natch.

For the uninitiated, the Jaguar Mark X was a sleek, top-of-the-line sedan that showed the world exactly what Grace, Space and Pace meant. It was the largest, most imposing British car on the road: until the XJ220 of 1992, it was the widest car Jaguar ever built. Its 4 headlights and narrow grille set forth the look of the modern Jaguar, bridging the gap between the Mark 2 and the XJ with design cues still evident today. Featuring all-steel monocoque construction, 4-wheel disc brakes, independent suspension ripped from an E-Type, power steering, and a limited-slip differential, its size belied its handling prowess. And with burled walnut trim, front and rear picnic tables, and armchair-sized seats swathed in enough leather to agonize entire Hindu sects, its luxury reinforced Jaguar’s world-class status. And yet, somehow, the Chevy small-block seems superfluous.

Jaguar, of course, never built the Mark X as a 4-door convertible. Jaguar also never stuffed something as plebeian as a V8 motor from a mere Chevy into it, but as evident by this week’s posts, that clearly hasn’t stopped people from trying. At this rate, scientists will invent a time machine and, after assassinating Marilyn Monroe and going on a date with Hitler (like any schmo with a time machine would do), travel back to 1948 and convince Sir William Lyons to replace the lovely dual-cam XK6 engine in the XK120 with a Chevy 350 and 4-speed toploader in time for the London Motor Show. It would make the lives of custom “retromod” car builders of the present a lot easier.

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