By Jeff Glucker
The Jaguar XJC is a gorgeous car. The pillarless coupe has an excellent stance with its slightly raked nose, fender haunches, and open-air cabin feel. And automotive journalist legend Harry Metcalfe has got a damn good one. He’s been sharing a number of videos on the car as it’s gone through a full restoration. And now it’s finished and home in his garage, which means he’s ready to talk about the cost of this whole thing.
Right around the 7:20 mark, he casually mentions that the full restoration of the 12-cylinder engine cost an eye-watering 21,000 pounds. I let out an audible “oh ma gaw…” on that one. And that’s before we get to the stunning green paint and well-done bodywork.
All told, the cost of the restoration was right around 57,000 pounds. And yes, I agree that is a ton of money to spend on an old Jaguar. But Harry has the money if his garage hasn’t tipped you to that fact, and he seems to truly love this car. So cheers to Mr. Metcalfe on his exceedingly lovely XJC. It’s probably the nicest one in the world at the moment.
Oh, and I’m going to try and steal that green color for my Benz wagon… yes, that’s still a thing that is going to happen. Someday. I promise.
If it makes you feel any better, I think there were some upgrades included in that £21k rebuild. Although, as I recall, Matt Farah’s safari 911 had a $20k USD rebuild as well, so it just seems like it goes with the territory.
That said, nice as this turned out (might be sacrilege, but I’m indifferent to the XJ-C, but this one is amazing), I liked the sympathetic restoration on his Silver Shadow earlier this year more.
Jag V12 rebuild costs have led to a lot of SBC swaps.
and I’m curious if I’m going to need to rebuild my 350…
Perhaps, but you can do that on a budget, with high quality parts that are readily available at the nearest convenience store, at prices that reflect tooling that was fully amortized 100,000 units ago.
I think my dad spent between $12K and $15K rebuilding the engine in his 1957 Eldorado in 2020. I’m thinking my Tbird engine needs done and I’m guessing a DIY rebuild will still cost me $3K – $5K in parts and machine shop work. So $28K for a Jag V12 isn’t surprising.