Whisky Tango Foxbat: 1960 Jaguar XK150 Breadvan

Looking at this next car was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. At first I thought, well that isn’t cool, a breadvan XK Jag. And then I realized that this is a Morris Minor woodie rear end on an XK150, which is a monstrosity, it’s like putting a diaper on the Venus de Milo, like building a Chuck E Cheese in St Peter’s Square. But in the end, I guess it doesn’t matter because if you buy this thing, you won’t have to look at that rear end while you are driving around. Find this 1960 Jaguar XK150 Breadvan offered for £44,995 GBP ($63,673 USD) via ClassicandSportsCar.com.

From the seller:

DESCRIPTION
This is something that you dont see everyday! It is the one and only, world famous, 1960 Jaguar XK150 Shooting Brake ‘Foxbat’! It is a unique car built in the late seventies and well known to everyone in the Jaguar community! She is well documented as a quick google search will testify and she is in a nice useable condition and driving well. This car, in the car park at Goodwood, or in the paddock, commands a crowd like no other XK in existence! It is a wonderful quirky thing and would add colour to any Jaguar Collection. It is also suitable as a fun workhorse for LESS than the price of a normal car!

What would turn out to be the final glorious incarnation of Jaguar’s fabulous ‘XK’ series of sports cars arrived in 1957. As its nomenclature suggests, the XK150 was a progressive development of the XK120 and XK140, retaining the same basic chassis, 3.4-litre engine and four-speed Moss transmission of its predecessors while benefiting from a new, wider body that provided increased interior space and improved visibility courtesy of a single-piece wrap-around windscreen, replacing the XK140’s divided screen. Cleverly, the new body used many XK120/140 pressings, the increased width being achieved by means of a 4″-wide central fillet. A higher front wing line and broader radiator grille were other obvious differences, but the new model’s main talking point was its Dunlop disc brakes. Fade following repeated stops from high speed had been a problem of the earlier, drum-braked cars, but now the XK had stopping power to match its prodigious straight-line speed.
Introduced in the spring of 1957, the XK150 was available at first only in fixed and drophead coupé forms, the open roadster version not appearing until the following year. At 190bhp, the standard 3.4-litre engine’s maximum power output was identical to that of the XK140, so performance was little changed. Overdrive and a Borg-Warner automatic gearbox were the transmission options, the latter becoming an increasingly popular choice, while a Thornton Powr-Lok limited-slip differential was available for the XK150S.

The concept of the Sports Estate or Shooting Brake, is not new; there had been several such bespoke creations on quality chassis before WW2, while in the post-war era Harold Radford’s dozen-or-so shooting brake conversions of the Aston Martin DB5 are among the most familiar. This car, named the Foxbat, is the only one in existence in the world and was built by a Jaguar enthusiast Geoffrey Stevens in the 1975 to 1977 period. He was a Jaguar enthusiast and worked as an industrial chemist near Swindon, he and his wife needed a more practical car to transport kit around, with room for their two dogs, and he decided to do his own conversion. It took him several years to complete, using a very rusty Jaguar XK150 and a Morris Minor. You can see exactly where joins the other. He even hand cut a Foxbat badge to put on the back. It really is incredibly interesting and, as far as we know, it is the only one in existence.

It was sold by Mr Stevens in the 1980s and spent many years in France before being transported back to the UK in 2008, since when it has been carefully stored and run regularly. The V5 shows only 3 previous UK owners since 1960, although we know the car spent many years in a french collection, including many other shooting breaks. The car is UK Registered and driving well but would obviously benefit from a good service after a period in storage. Unique, unrepeatable, and totally useable, and cheaper than normal XK! Please be quick as it may be another lifetime before it becomes available again.
Please visit our main website for many more photos and information.

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