Jalopnik
We took a break from the PCH Superpowers and watched the Rotary Honda 600 pound on the Rotary Starlet in yesterday's all-Japanese Choose Your Eternity poll. However, Britain's defeat of Italy last week can mean only one thing: Britain must now take on PCH SuperGigaPower France in an attempt to claim the rusty, oil-leaking PCH Intergalactic Superchampion crown!
Why the heck didn't Jaguar put truck beds on their cars straight from the factory? Take the XJ-S, for instance: V12 torque, comfy leather interior, beautiful lines- in short, everything you want in a cartruck! Obviously, it falls to the Jaguar owner to deal with this shortcoming. Those of you who have been planning to build your own XJ-Schero can save many months of hard work by starting with this Rancheroized 1990 Jaguar XJ-S as the basis of your project. For some inexplicable reason, this car failed to sell for the chump-change price of two grand, and that means the seller is likely ready to deal! The seller, clearly unaware of the naming convention for cartrucks, has named this '90 XJ-S a "Jagmino," but the inclusion of a free '85 parts car makes up for the incorrect name. Yes, you get two Jags for the price of one here! There's no fuel tank, no back window, and no bed floor, and of course you get some funky E-Type carburetors to make things more interesting. Those minor headaches will be nothing compared to the pride you'll feel cruising your V12 Jagchero around town, however- a few repairs, some fabrication... how hard can it be? Thanks to BZR (who already has a PCH Tipster T-shirt) for the tip!
We like a V12 cartruck, that's for sure! But what if the future really will be about the electric car? You won't want to be caught driving weenie plastic bubblecars, and of course nobody is going to be able to afford the Tesla. No, if the electric-car future really happens, the Jalopnik-Approved™ approach will be something more along the lines of what Plasma Boy has done with his electric Datsun 1200. That's right, a drag racer that burns electrons! Of course, a rear-engined/rear-drive machine gives you better traction off the line, but that doesn't mean your high-voltage machine needs to be a VW or even a Porsche. Leave those machines to the conformists, because you'll be blasting out of the lights in this electric 1968 Renault 10 (go here if the ad disappears), which is available for just $1,500. What we have here is a 40-year-old French car with a 28-year-old electric conversion that's been sitting for decades, so you have to figure on at least a few hours of tinkering before it's ready to be used as an environmentally friendly daily driver. The daily-driver stage will be a temporary way station on your way to taking on Plasma Boy at the strip, however, and that means you'll need to get busy beefing up the chassis to handle the mighty torque of a monster electric motor and the weight of batteries. Hey, maybe rust isn't even a major factor here! Thanks, plus a half-credit towards a PCH Tipster T-shirt, to LTDScott.
Comments
Did the French even have electricity in 1968?
Jagchero might be the ultimate PCH candidate of all time.
As cool as the Jag is, and it is WAY cool......I think you could finish it....but an electric Renault WITHOUT Batteries???? That, my fellow Jalops, is the essence of PCH! Complete French insanity that automatically wins this round!
College kids + France + Electricity = mayhem.
Are you kidding, Jaguar XJ-Schero.
That Jagchero has planted a seed in my mind that will forever haunt my fantasies.
Damn the environment ... Jagchero
I mean think about it:
With le car electrique you'll just be another desciple of Al Gore.
Wheras, with the chopped Jag you can offend every British car aficianado snob you pass on the highway, AND be the envy of all the social-ladder climbing rednecks in the neighborhood.
Oh, Jeebus, this is the most awesome PCH ever. They are both so interesting, so alluring, and so insanely demonic. Do I want to spend all of my money on golf cart batteries and electric motor contols, or do I want to spend it on slowly subbing out every British bit from the XJS ute for something that works?
I had to go for the Jagchero, but just. I would have to do it up proper, completely stock all the way around, except for the whole truck bed thing. Good thing about the parts car, eh? That should make it, um, easier.
Even somebody that fixes Jags for a living gave up on the Jagchero!
Gotta be the Jagchero. British Leyland Jag with its own spare parts bed = self-fulfilling prophecy.
As much as I wanted to vote Jagamino, I mean it comes with its own parts car, for God's sake, I had to go ill-conceived electric French heap-o-junk.
The Jag might actually move under its own power. The Renault? How can I put this....
It's the predecessor of the Le Car...
Le Flower Pot.
How Jalopnik is the Jagamino, exactly?
V12- 30 pts.
Longitudally mounted- 25 pts.
4 throttle bodies- 20 pts.
(side note: "latitudinally?" Really?)
Caminoized- 101 pts.
RWD- 25 pts.
Transmission- not sure.
British- 20 pts.
(Recaros aren't enough to qualify as mixed origin.)
POWA! 5 pts.
(Educated guess based on later figures.)
Age- 30 pts.
(I'm going with 1977, it's the only year listed.)
Other- 30 pts.
(There are more patches of unpainted Bondo than I know what to do with. This is a loose figure. Plus/minus 50 pts here.)
Grand Total: 286
This thing is bouncing off the scale of Jalop-ness. Is there an all-time "Most Jalopnik Cars of All Time" list? Cause I think this thing just made it on there.
Did you even THINK this would be close?
Jagchero? V12? Parts car? Yeah, baybee!
Paint that cheery yellow beast a sinister semigloss black, and don't forget the six exhaust pipes peeking out from under the rear bumper!
How could a PC battery powered French econobox even hope compete with that?
I really, really wanted to vote Jagamino, but a 40-year-old Renault converted to electricity?!
The croissant, FTW.
The Jag might move under its own power, someday, if you pray to the correct gods and make many living being sacrifices.
The Renault? It'll never move.
This is the predecessor to the Le Car, Le Flower Pot.
A few years back, there was a company that was converting old Renault Dauphines to electric. I can't think of what they're called right now, but if you figure out who they are, you've got mentors to guide you through this quest.
Jaguar guys will either hate you for having a Jagchero, or will end up in the bed, in a catatonic state.
@biminitwst: Eff 6 exhausts, this thing needs 6 straight pipes coming out of each side, spewing flames. And we're going with flat-black here. Lucifer will drive nothing less. That's right, this is the car of the Antichrist. Move over, ACR.
The Jag, obviously.
Hell, an electric powertrain actually IMPROVES the Renault's reliability, but a V-12 Jagamino, oh Sweet Jesus, that there's Hell on wheels.
First you got your Jag electrics, your Jag V-12, and all the attendant Hell that comes from the -amino conversion. I'm SURE they buttressed the chassis to handle the cargo bed. And I reckon a half-ton of manure in the bed does wonders for the handling...
Correction on the Jalop scale, actually. I meant the "1977" was the only number I saw. The 30-year delta in engine and car age makes up for the 20-point difference on the scale, so the rating stands.
What I reaaly want to know is what he's doing with the two wrecked first-gen MR2's behind L'lectric Frog.
You think you could get a cap for it?
Jagchero!! life has meaning again!
V12 Jag anything is automatically maximum hell.
Jagchero is amazing, but home made electric conversion of Gallic steel is hard not to vote for. The Jagchero has spare parts, so you know the guy at least thought about the consequences of his actions.
Jagchero. Duh.
But I have to ask: Why only ONE parts car?
Jaguamino auction ended - OK, where is it, who's got it?
I'm sure the Renaulternator would be a less satisfying as a machine, but even in non-running state, the Jag is a thing of beauty.
I had to vote Jag, just as a "Thank you, God!" for someone having done it, so I don't have to.
Ask my co-workers, and they'd confirm how seriously I was contemplating caminoizing my '87 XJS.
At least running a pre-HE with the Strombergs gets rid of some of the electrical gremlins.
Of course it opens up a new chapter with Stromberg Gremlins...
Jagchero... seriously, did you think this was going to be anywhere near close, V12 British car with a TRUCK BED vs. French car with an ancient electric drive system that's going to be torn out anyway.
With the Renault you're basically buying the chassis, you're going to be replacing everything else. Expensive, yes. Hellish, no, you can do whatever you want, it's only going to be slightly more hellish than a normal electric conversion.
The Jag on the other hand, V12 (you're not going to want to loose that), loads of fabrication work (of lord knows what quality), and it's a Jag.
@Unevolved...?: My '87 ranks a 175 Stock.
If I swapped out the (2) throttle bodies for the (4) carbs, like this guy did, it would bump it 30 points higher.
And that's before Caminoization.
The Jag is perfect! Just imagine:
"Sure honey, I'll clean out the garage. Just let me load everything into the Jagamino...aw shoot! It won't start."
@danio3834: V12 Jag anything is automatically maximum hell.
This does not bode well for the the Checker Marathon that I'm dropping a v12 into.
I'm going with the Renault.
A 40 year old French car with a (probably undocumented) electric conversion? It would be hell even if it did run.
@Unevolved...?: My calculations indicate that the Renault gets 218 points on the How Jalopnik Is Your Car scale. That's assuming its engine is 0-50 horsepower and longitudinally mounted.
I'm going to have to go with the dino burner on this one. this looks to be a classic conundrum I see in the RC world. Electric cars just flat work, If they don't it's easy to find the problem. Gas engines Probbibly not unlike this Jag, are tempermental, hard to tune, are a pain to start and sometimes will just catch on fire for no particular reason.
Jagchero for me, Lucas Ign, needs fabrication, and it runs on GAS. The E-frenchy only requires some new batteries a little wiring and a little cleaning. Sure there is explosive potential here but, I'm not feelign it today. Plus I'm sorry the little E-frenchy would just be too popular with the elietist, armchair-eco crowd.
Holy Jebus, this is got to be up top with the most awsomist PCH of ALL TIME!! YEaaaHH!
Jagchero, rusty, in so poor of shape that you coulden't even fix it if you owned a British Car Shop!
But Holy Napoleon! That Renault is one helluva automobile. Some have said that the electrics may improve relibility, but I have little faith in the Engineering Students in Kansas, and much less faith in anyone from Sedalia!
Nomally Id abstain, but the dark power of lucifer, plus the awsome nature-killing potential of the Jag does it for me!
Viva la France!
An electric French car that no one this side of Gerard Depardieu could love.......THAT's is the 9th circle of PCH. Vive La France!
make me a Jagchero that purrs with a deep bass tone
and i will only drive it saturdays..summers..for semi useful reasons..semi locally.promise.
That Jag is so cool I might just burst into tears of joy. Whilst I do like the idea of maximum evil with the flat black suggested by others here, another part of me want to paint it the full Union Jack at the front and fade it into the Confederate flag at the rear. No matter what the plan for the car is, it will consume your soul. And you will let it.
The Renault merely wants to electrocute you and cares not one bit about possessing your soul, so why even bother?
@something_unique_and_descriptive: Exactly. It won't be that hellish to redo the non-French, non-English electrics on the French shell; just expensive.
The Jagamino ... it's a Jag that got -aminoized. Deep down, it's still a Jag.
* Does the El Shagmino qualify as a shooting break?
This is kinda like when you see your sister naked for the first time, you're not quite sure what to think.
XJ-S's are one of my favourite cars for reasons that even I will never fully understand. To turn one into an -anchero is straight up blasphemy.
If I saw someone get out of that car, or any -anchero that has been made out of a Jaguar I would feel compelled to berate that person.
What kind of jerk looks at an XJ-S and thinks, hey, I'll just go and turn that into a pickup truck? Who looks at a Jaguar thinks that it was in any way designed for utilitarian purposes.
I'm voting for the other car, whatever it is.
I think I can say with some assurance that I am the only one here who actually purchased a '68 R-10--and as my first car in 1972. These are scarce, boys; even pictures of them are rare--and this electro-Reno is one of a kind. Has to be. Jags are a dime a dozen.
And the mad genius who found the R-10 and decided to make it electric--how is some Sawz'd off Jag going to compete---amino/chero--That's SO obvious.
The Jagamino
With a lot of money and Chip Foose contracted maybe you can drive it one day.
@smalleyxb122: I gotta say thats pretty cool. Hats off to you if you can make it work.
The Jaguchero is so wrong in so, so many ways. OTOH, Le Electric Car has the potential to be a new kind of sleeper. As I recall, the gas engines in those beasties were really tiny. And you could put an even tinier one (eg Fiat 500) in its place if you want. And set the car up as a series hybrid. What I am getting at is, refurb the electric goodies, shoehorn a small gas burning powerplant in there somewhere, there has got to be room, and you have just out-Volted GM for about 0.00001 percent of the R&D costs.
@Evil-Jeremy: I think that. But mabye it's just because ive been hanging around here for too long. . .