XJS Lister Found at salvage yard

By the looks of things it seems that I may have been lucky enough to find more then a cursory XJS Lister.
From what I gather the car was totaled by an insurance company and then sold to a salvage yard without a title.
The car was listed on Craigslist some hours before I was fortunate enough to be cruising the site not looking for anything in-particular. I hesitated a bit before contacting the seller and after haggling over the price I walked away. After thinking about it I called the guy back within the hour and reasoned that the first negotiated price was worth it. The seller was nice enough to take the ad down based on my promise to buy the car. 10 days later I had the car on my trailer.
It’s been raining and I haven’t been able to unload the car yet nor take any really good pictures yet but I am curious to know what you guys think so far.

Take note of the intake air trumpets, clutch hydraulic reservoir, side skirts, rear apron, steering wheel, BBS wheels with lister badge, 5 speed.

I didn’t think to take any photos of the interior but all things considered it’s not in bad shape and surprisingly the roof liner is not hanging down.
An old license plate lying on the floor indicates the car was last registered in Kentucky. Maybe someone here might know of the last owner.
The car does not have a sunroof and it seems.
All but one of the corners of the front spoiler is missing. I am not sure if the corner piece that’s left is enough to recreate it in it’s entirety.

A.J.

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Nice Score! Looks like a bunch of work. I nothing quite as unique as a Lister, but I purchased an '87 XJ-SC the same way.

Clutch master cylinder! What’s that thing the clutch line is connected to?

Look at those huge air intake horns!

Please post photos of any Lister-unique hardware you can. IIRC, the ignition system is unique even though it uses a Lucas distributor, so if you get the cap off you can snap a pic of what’s under there.

I am extremely anxious to get the dismantling process underway. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can get started on that.
I’ll be keeping a watchful eye out for anything unique that the car has to offer and post pictures.
I am baffled by what I assume to be a US model that is more than just a spoiler package. Weren’t the US models just dressed without further enhancements?

Kirby, I noticed those intake horns right away. I am no sure if the camera picked up the detail of the horns but I really looked close and there didn’t seem to be any indication of those horns being welded on. A factory mod? Dealers had stuff like that on their shelves?

The 5 speed is another anomaly. Is it actually true that Jaguar produced a factory made 5 speed attached to the 5.3? I can’t wait to find out what transmission they used.

Has anyone ever seen 16" BBS rims on an XJS with Lister logos? I have never heard of such a thing.

I am interested to find out about the ECU. Yeah, I wanna check out the ignition system too.

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What do you suppose the chances are of a true Lister car slipping through the cracks and finding it’s way to the states?
I guess it’d be pretty hard to tell if the engine was beefed up aside from tearing it apart huh?
I’m dreaming!

I wonder if the clutch disengages the cruise control using a pressure switch?

That’s funny lol!

That’s the same thing I thought and a large part of that is why the car is still on the trailer.

Before I picked up the Jag I had just finished up stripping an e30 which took me over a month. By the time I got that BMW to the salvage yard it was less the 1k lbs.

The other problem that I’m going to face with this XJS is that there is no title and the salvage yards want paper work when you bring whole cars in. I may have to cut this car up into smaller pieces before I can get rid of it which adds a tremendous amount of work that I am not looking forward to.

Cordless sawzall time

Does your state have a bonded title application process…investigate the possibility

A quick goggle search for the state of Indiana reveals some info pertaining to such but I think I may be between a rock and a hard place with this.

The price of scrap metal is so low that I only walked away with $65.00 for my e30 last week. I am pretty sure that Bonded application process isn’t something that they give away for free but if it’s greater than or equal to the scrap prices then that wouldn’t be appealing at all. The sawzall route at least yields some residual value. It’s a tough spot to be in no matter which way you turn.

The other piece of it is finding a place to store all of the bits that are taken off of the car. Craigslist is not generally known to yield quick turnaround times.

Amidst sulking over the disposal dilemma :slightly_frowning_face:I am grateful for the find, though.:joy:

No wonder the car is bent, it’s got Toyo tires on it. I had those tires on my Impala SS, and they are slippery in the wet, and not that good in the dry either.

Have you thought about putting it back together? The XJ-SC that I picked up that is bent, I thought stripping it and using it for spares; as I took it apart, I could see how well the car had been maintained and it seamed like a shame to strip it and send it off to the crusher.

My fingers are tired from serial number searching but as far as I can tell it seems that the Lister was in fact last registered in the state of Kentucky and met it’s demise somewhere in 2016.
All of the searches reveal the same production year 1988 and that of an automatic transmission.

Could this be a Driven Man conversion? Dunno yet. I’m hoping to find a Getrag transmission underneath the car when I am able to get under there and take a look and not find a Tremec.

So much suspense, the plot thickens

Doesnt the Driven Man basically use Tremec innards?

I will try to get some better pictures today but this car was smacked pretty good and there ain’t a straight panel on the car. It seems like someone deliberately crushed the rear of the car to prevent salvaging. Beside the guy at the salvage yard told me that the insurance company scraped the title then sold it to him without it. Best case scenario I’d be looking at a salvage title and that doesn’t appeal to me. You can’t see from the pictures but the car is buckled up underneath in various places. If it were the last XJS then maybe but I’ve got a few other projects on my plate and this car is just not worth it.

Not basically, the Tremec is what he uses.

If you’re trying to make money ona one time thing…good luck…i thought you wete talking of rebuilding

I understand the amount of work required to put the car on the road. Though, the Lister won’t bring top dollar no matter how much work you put into the car right now. I based on the rising prices the XJ-S’s are fetching right now, do predict, in the not for distant future, the car will fetch a handsome chunk of change. If it were me, I’d have it a side project.

My XJ-SC was hit from the rear and a insurance total. Granted the SC’s aren’t as rare and sought after as a Lister XJ-S, but (I think) as goofy looking the SC is they have their place on the Jaguar XJ-S market. When push comes to shove Jaguar didn’t produce very many XJ-SC, The only reason why I’m considering saving the XJ-SC, is because everything from the top of the wheel well forward is straight an arrow; the doors close and the panel gaps are still intact. So I am considering straightening it, and putting it back together. If nothing else use it as a track day car.

I too have too many other projects so it sits in a storage unit out of the weather until I decide what to do with it.

You’ve got a gem on your hands, so keep us posted on your progress.

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I would be interested in the lister body parts (bumpers and side skirts providing they’re salvageable.
PM me if available.