575HP LS3 Swapped Jaguar XJ8L - One Take
**The Story of Carl’s Modified Jaguar XJ8: A Journey of Oddball Car Enthusiasm**
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### Introduction
Hey everyone! This is going to be quite special. You know, we all love those oddball car projects—those unique builds that make you scratch your head and say, “How did they even think of this?” If you’ve got an oddball car project, or if you know someone who does, send it over because that’s the only way we’re going to find these incredible builds. And here we are with Carl, a very well-dressed man, and his pride and joy: a Jaguar.
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### The Build Overview
This is Carl’s story with his car—a very well-dressed man and his Jaguar. Did it start as an R? No, it was a XJ8. With a four-cylinder engine to begin with, later upgraded to make 270 horsepower (that’s a generous estimate). Now, it makes **488 horsepower at the wheels** and **575 horsepower at the crank**, thanks to an LS motor—a serious LS motor, not just some e-rod engine.
This car started life as a **GM Performance Crate Motor 376/525**. It has a full Lingenfelter filter head conversion with ZR1 specs, featuring LS9 heads—titanium valves, sodium-filled exhaust valves, and a high-lift cam (gt11). The level of engineering in this car is way overboard, and Carl loves it because it’s not just the engine—it’s the **interior** that sets it apart.
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### Interior Details
Carl bought an entire B5 Audi S4 interior for $900 and re-trimmed it to his liking. The seats are out of a B5 S4, and the suede and quilting are absolutely beautiful. The steering wheel is a **Nardi Gar 3 JDM wheel**, which looks super cool.
Carl has done several builds in the past—like his G23, one of the first shark works cars, and many others—but this one was on a budget. He bought the car off eBay for $1,200. How much has gone into the whole build? Carl estimates that you could build this car for around **$38,000 worth of parts**, including the motor.
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### Performance Upgrades
The car features a **gated six-speed manual gearbox**—a T-56 Magnum with three-layer Kevlar synchros. It’s impressive, but the shifter still chatters a bit. Carl mentions that he hasn’t seen a gated shifter on an LS before and wonders why everyone isn’t doing this.
The car has **long wheelbase**, which adds to its unique character. Carl jokes about how he’s been sending updates on the build for months, even shipping it down for a test drive. Unfortunately, there were some sorting issues, but they’re here now, and the car is looking better than ever.
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### Design Choices
The car’s color is an OEM shade from the R8 and S8—it’s a beautiful brown that reminds Carl of the Nissan 350Z gold with more brown tones. He loves the color and the touches he added to the door handles, bullet mirrors, and shaved door handles with Aston Martin-style levers.
Carl was inspired by his own experiences growing up. When he was in high school, his dad had a D2 S8—a big V8 car that left a lasting impression. He wanted to create something similar but with more modern flair.
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### Challenges and Details
The car has **365mm front and rear brakes**—minimal power assist, no ABS, six-pot front, four-pot rears. Carl mentions that the brake pedal travel is a bit more than he’d like because it’s hard to balance pedal arc with boost ratio. He jokes about having the opposite problem of the Mustang: too much pedal and not enough boost.
The car runs on **1552 Wheels**, a shoutout to Matt Crook for rushing the set of two-piece forged wheels for the original shoot date. The tunnel was a priority because, despite all the power, the car is pretty refined.
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### Final Touches
Carl’s Jaguar has a single wiper (original), no wood on the dash—it’s just a sticker he clear-coated to look like wood. He added a 6.2L badge that looks factory and some subtle touches to make it unique.
The car’s interior is finished, with beautiful suede and quilting. Even though there’s a bit of chatter from the shifter, Carl says it’s 99.7% perfect. He jokes about being nervous about driving in wet conditions but assures everyone that the car will stop—just not as confidently as he’d like.
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### Conclusion
Carl’s Jaguar is unlike any other project car. It’s a full-size sedan build that’s completely over the top and finished to perfection. If you ever want to sell this car, Carl has one request: call him first because it’s the coolest thing he’s ever done.
Thank you, Carl, for sharing your passion project with us. This is definitely something we’ll be talking about for a long time!
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This article captures the full essence of Carl’s build, celebrating his creativity, dedication, and love for all things oddball in the car world.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone uh this is going to be quite special um this is you know I know you guys love the Oddball stuff I love the Oddball stuff if you've got or have built or has a friend that's built some Oddball stuff send it over because it's the only way we're going to find these people uh this is Carl finally at long last the story with car I mean a very well-dressed man and this is his Jaguar did it start as an R it was a XJ8 XJ8 uh with a four later making 270 horse stock two that's that's a generous estimate and it now has it now makes 488 at the wheels 575 at the crank LS motor LS motor and and like a serious LS motor not even like an e-rod engine yeah so this started Life as a 376 525 GM performance crate motor okay and then it has full Li Lian filter head conversion ZR One specs um heads mil for normally aspirated ls9 heads so titanium vals sodium filed exhaust valves um high lift cam gt11 cam the level that you've got in this car is way overboard I love it because it's not just the engine like the interior is finished like these seats you said are out of an Audi S4 these are junkyard seats out of a B5 S4 I bought an entire B5 S4 interior for9 Bock stop it and then re-trimmed it so what did this whole interior cost you like a couple hundred bucks couple hundred bucks the Suede and the the quilting is like beautiful you've got what a is this nardy it looks a nardy is steering wheel very good it's a nardy gar uh gar 3 JDM wheel it's super cool I should clarify like this is I have a whole series of builds I've done they are not budget builds right I've done built G23 I had one of the first shark Works cars I guyardo a bunch of other stuff this is a budget build bought this car off eBay for $1,211 1,200 how much how much has gone into the whole car if it's a budget building 40 50 all all parts everything including this motor you could build this for $38,000 worth of part and oh by the way it has a gated six-speed manual gear Bo is a t-56 it's a t-56 Magnum with uh thre layer Kevlar synchros that still chatter a little I've never seen a gated shifter on an LS before why isn't everyone doing this is It's kind of awesome it's so awesome it's not kind and and oh by the way long wheelbase it's a long wheel-based car this is so the gauges are ra I mean it's been I I've Carl has been sending me updates and here's where I throw Carl under the bus a little bit most people we film one takes with there's a cou two emails three emails back and forth scheduling and whatnot I looked this morning for fun I have 47 emails from Carl I've I've been watching this build the whole way or a big portion of the way he even shipped it down here to uh to have a i me drive it a couple months ago and it unfortunately broke it was some sorting issues but we're here now oh my God the clicking of the shifter what is that that's the KE syn really oh wow you do hear that okay that's the only hint of refinement in the whole car I got to go wipers is that here yeah yes single wiper is that original yeah it had it originally had one wi single wiper yeah all right what have you done for brakes uh so you've got 365 mm front and rear uh minimal power assist no ABS six pot Front four pot rears um the the brake pedal travel is a little more than I would like yeah it's not it's it's hard to balance the amount of pedal Arc that you want with the amount of boost you want right so I'm having the opposite problem Mustang right where it's too much boost and too little pedal so you have too much pedal and not enough boost exactly yeah I may have to do the reverse of what you're doing with the Mustang put in a bigger master cylinder and do the bigger master cylinder exactly go to 21 mm or go to the uh go to a Can-Am style uh you know plunger Master is this the uh is this the St original master cylinder that's in this no but it is the original brake booster with a different boost ratio okay so I've I've de boosted it a bit and you're also running uh 1552 Wheels the homie Matt crook over there hu huge props to the 1552 guys they actually rushed a set of two-piece Forge Wheels out to me for our original shoot date tunnel tunnel hold on Carl priorities and the tunnel is of the highest priority I mean you know what for all the power it's pretty refined I mean it's it's loudish outside the car but in here it's good so why why why do any of this what was the point so I'm a consultant I pick up clients all the time I need a you know I need a four-door toan and this is what you came up with I you know I wasn't going have something boring no you know I was in New Jersey and I drove an Infinity J30 that had a blown LS in it and I was like why' you do this he's like well you know I need a family car exactly I mean I honestly I thought about building this project and I was like turn around here I could either order an RS7 uhhuh and buy by the way I would have ordered the same color eima brown what is this color from this is a OEM color on the R8 and S8 it's an Audi color interesting um I would have thought it was more like the uh the Nissan 350Z gold with a little more Brown in it so if you look at them if you look at those two colors side by side the Z would look super gold and this would look super brown okay but yeah I so I really like I really like this color um I really liked being able do some touches with the door handles and you know the bullet mirrors and yeah you shave the door handles and put these really neat like Aston Martin style levers yeah I mean it's got It's got some character to it I think honestly what inspired this car more than anything is so we're about the same age uhhuh when I was in high school my dad had a D2 S8 okay brand new um at that time current buy style at that time and that was just such a cool car big V8 I like those cars remember like 2001 era yeah exactly yeah yeah I like those right right right you assure me right now that the transmission is not going to launch itself right just the noise right not going to happen okay and you got a lot of red line to work with I know but the wet roads and I'm just I'm nervous about your car it's people going to call me a but like I just I I want to your car is so nice and finished and pretty like as far as it doesn't a project car like people always leave something out they always stop somewhere and go it good enough you know move on to the next one no this has like I don't want to say Factory but like it's as close as you're going to find right yeah I mean I I want to rev the of this thing but I need a straight line I mean you got you got 7,000 RPM to work with according to Lian felter well unfortunately your your brake pedal isn't inspiring a whole lot of confidence and so I'm sure the car will stop it's just a matter of when and uh though a48 are a rain tire for the Lotus Cup Series they are not much of a rain tire really someone paid somebody off and that's how that happened they're they're a hell a lot better than the a5s would be in the rain but yeah um I actually ran the A5 well I ran these a48 ad bands on my GT3 and then changed over to the Michelin Pilot Sport cups on a 997 GT3 one and I'd say these tires in the sport cups are about the same in the dry yeah but neither is very rain tire they just sport cup in the dry you think wow I mean they run as a rain tire it's an compound with a nearly secca illegal tread wear rating so I will tell you that you have the same issue in this car that I have with my Vanquish which is that you now have three pedals in a space meant for two exactly and therefore you have no dead pedal which is sort of a bummer but at least you're smaller than me and don't have big bread low feet like I have I have big rad low feet and so that's an issue to me but this thing is awesome dude even though I'm not going as fast as know if you just leave this in second if you down shift a second up here just leave it just leave it in second just rev it out okay you'll you'll be I'll do it for you Carl the Caden shifter is the best that's my favorite thing about the whole car you do have 7,000 RPM to play with me is this thing fast this is the best Jag ever I mean it's got didn't you mentioned in in one of your 47 emails that you have a better power to weight ratio than V8 F Type yeah what's crazy is so people who kind of know the history of these cars will say to me well that's the last of the steel Jaguars the last of the steel sedans it must be really heavy No in fact this car is 800 lb lighter than the new aluminum light X these things were always the lightest cars in their class always like you compare this to the is probably in bad taste but the princess Die edition s glass yeah oh my god well that's a tank I mean this thing is so cool I love it I love that it's a long wheel base you know what I mean there's so much not giving a in a long wheelbase car this is like the uh I had a guy here in La asked me uh so like why this all the project cars why I'm like you know the XJ is like it's like if a Jason STM character were a real person this is what he drive it is yeah this is like proper transporter cuz like what's Jaguar right Grace space Pace I think you have Grace in here maybe not with the 15 52s I I love I love Matt crook but I it wouldn't be my wheel choice to put these on here I think there's there's probably another solution that might mash the style a little better but I mean the engine is definitely the pace and the long wheelbase is the space all right I'll just Mt it in first do it well that that noise from there is scary but you assure me that it's fine I'll believe you they tell me it's fine if they say so whoever they is right dude I'm so glad you brought this thing down here this thing is so awesome it's completely unlike any other project car because who does a full-size sedan project car like nobody right and you're I I imagine you said you must have said to yourself if I am going to put a manual in this car it must be a based on your outfit right you know what I mean you're a you're a finished guy you you definitely like you go you know you go you got everything matches and that's how it's got to be with your car I imagine right yeah yeah I mean this everybody who sits in this car who's at all not even like Enthusiast level but at all into cars yeah is like wow I wish I could do that in my car I wish I could do this do if you ever want to sell this will you promise to call me first I will call you like I'm not saying now and I know you you should keep it this fits now that we've met in person this fits you really well better than it fits me but if you ever want to sell it you must call me first because this thing is the coolest thing well that's that's a hell of an endorsement I appreciate it so uh your your Magnum t-56 do you have the super long six like a vet or is it close ratio like CTS yeah this the road race gears the CT close ratio 6 feet so how is your fuel economy um pretty laughable especially cuz I I like to test Lian felters CL um but honestly anything that's 6.2 L and can spin reliably at 7 Grand and puts out this kind of power is pretty impressive so forget the economy what's your range can you go to San Francisco or something on one tank or is it is it that bad no it's not that bad you you could get here you could get here from Reno if you stretched a tank that's not so bad and you have we've got air conditioning going you have a radio I mean there's you have zero Sacrifice from Jaguar's uh Mission with this car absolutely and some is that Bost in the wood or is that a sticker no seriously that's awesome it's a sticker that I clear coated over that looks like it's in the wood that looks great he has a little 6.2 L badge there that looks like it could easily be Factory what you'd never guess is this is dipped in what that's not wood really that's di alumo no way that looks great dude Carl this thing is the tits this is so money I'm so comfortable in here this is the best car ever I mean it really is like you know I would try and get rid of that noise cuz that's a little disconcerting but like you're 99.7% there I want to like hang on I'm just going to leave the camera I love your ear eere is there I just want to what happened oh there we go I want to sit in the back real quick I want to see we're going to let it roll oh yeah I mean even with your seat as far back as your seat is yeah what's really amazing is back here the the floors are really high my knees are like in my face but I can fit behind myself back here this is brilliant thank you guys for watching thanks for finally making it down here thanks M that is awesome oh my God please call me if you ever want to sell this it's the best see you guys later thankshey everyone uh this is going to be quite special um this is you know I know you guys love the Oddball stuff I love the Oddball stuff if you've got or have built or has a friend that's built some Oddball stuff send it over because it's the only way we're going to find these people uh this is Carl finally at long last the story with car I mean a very well-dressed man and this is his Jaguar did it start as an R it was a XJ8 XJ8 uh with a four later making 270 horse stock two that's that's a generous estimate and it now has it now makes 488 at the wheels 575 at the crank LS motor LS motor and and like a serious LS motor not even like an e-rod engine yeah so this started Life as a 376 525 GM performance crate motor okay and then it has full Li Lian filter head conversion ZR One specs um heads mil for normally aspirated ls9 heads so titanium vals sodium filed exhaust valves um high lift cam gt11 cam the level that you've got in this car is way overboard I love it because it's not just the engine like the interior is finished like these seats you said are out of an Audi S4 these are junkyard seats out of a B5 S4 I bought an entire B5 S4 interior for9 Bock stop it and then re-trimmed it so what did this whole interior cost you like a couple hundred bucks couple hundred bucks the Suede and the the quilting is like beautiful you've got what a is this nardy it looks a nardy is steering wheel very good it's a nardy gar uh gar 3 JDM wheel it's super cool I should clarify like this is I have a whole series of builds I've done they are not budget builds right I've done built G23 I had one of the first shark Works cars I guyardo a bunch of other stuff this is a budget build bought this car off eBay for $1,211 1,200 how much how much has gone into the whole car if it's a budget building 40 50 all all parts everything including this motor you could build this for $38,000 worth of part and oh by the way it has a gated six-speed manual gear Bo is a t-56 it's a t-56 Magnum with uh thre layer Kevlar synchros that still chatter a little I've never seen a gated shifter on an LS before why isn't everyone doing this is It's kind of awesome it's so awesome it's not kind and and oh by the way long wheelbase it's a long wheel-based car this is so the gauges are ra I mean it's been I I've Carl has been sending me updates and here's where I throw Carl under the bus a little bit most people we film one takes with there's a cou two emails three emails back and forth scheduling and whatnot I looked this morning for fun I have 47 emails from Carl I've I've been watching this build the whole way or a big portion of the way he even shipped it down here to uh to have a i me drive it a couple months ago and it unfortunately broke it was some sorting issues but we're here now oh my God the clicking of the shifter what is that that's the KE syn really oh wow you do hear that okay that's the only hint of refinement in the whole car I got to go wipers is that here yeah yes single wiper is that original yeah it had it originally had one wi single wiper yeah all right what have you done for brakes uh so you've got 365 mm front and rear uh minimal power assist no ABS six pot Front four pot rears um the the brake pedal travel is a little more than I would like yeah it's not it's it's hard to balance the amount of pedal Arc that you want with the amount of boost you want right so I'm having the opposite problem Mustang right where it's too much boost and too little pedal so you have too much pedal and not enough boost exactly yeah I may have to do the reverse of what you're doing with the Mustang put in a bigger master cylinder and do the bigger master cylinder exactly go to 21 mm or go to the uh go to a Can-Am style uh you know plunger Master is this the uh is this the St original master cylinder that's in this no but it is the original brake booster with a different boost ratio okay so I've I've de boosted it a bit and you're also running uh 1552 Wheels the homie Matt crook over there hu huge props to the 1552 guys they actually rushed a set of two-piece Forge Wheels out to me for our original shoot date tunnel tunnel hold on Carl priorities and the tunnel is of the highest priority I mean you know what for all the power it's pretty refined I mean it's it's loudish outside the car but in here it's good so why why why do any of this what was the point so I'm a consultant I pick up clients all the time I need a you know I need a four-door toan and this is what you came up with I you know I wasn't going have something boring no you know I was in New Jersey and I drove an Infinity J30 that had a blown LS in it and I was like why' you do this he's like well you know I need a family car exactly I mean I honestly I thought about building this project and I was like turn around here I could either order an RS7 uhhuh and buy by the way I would have ordered the same color eima brown what is this color from this is a OEM color on the R8 and S8 it's an Audi color interesting um I would have thought it was more like the uh the Nissan 350Z gold with a little more Brown in it so if you look at them if you look at those two colors side by side the Z would look super gold and this would look super brown okay but yeah I so I really like I really like this color um I really liked being able do some touches with the door handles and you know the bullet mirrors and yeah you shave the door handles and put these really neat like Aston Martin style levers yeah I mean it's got It's got some character to it I think honestly what inspired this car more than anything is so we're about the same age uhhuh when I was in high school my dad had a D2 S8 okay brand new um at that time current buy style at that time and that was just such a cool car big V8 I like those cars remember like 2001 era yeah exactly yeah yeah I like those right right right you assure me right now that the transmission is not going to launch itself right just the noise right not going to happen okay and you got a lot of red line to work with I know but the wet roads and I'm just I'm nervous about your car it's people going to call me a but like I just I I want to your car is so nice and finished and pretty like as far as it doesn't a project car like people always leave something out they always stop somewhere and go it good enough you know move on to the next one no this has like I don't want to say Factory but like it's as close as you're going to find right yeah I mean I I want to rev the of this thing but I need a straight line I mean you got you got 7,000 RPM to work with according to Lian felter well unfortunately your your brake pedal isn't inspiring a whole lot of confidence and so I'm sure the car will stop it's just a matter of when and uh though a48 are a rain tire for the Lotus Cup Series they are not much of a rain tire really someone paid somebody off and that's how that happened they're they're a hell a lot better than the a5s would be in the rain but yeah um I actually ran the A5 well I ran these a48 ad bands on my GT3 and then changed over to the Michelin Pilot Sport cups on a 997 GT3 one and I'd say these tires in the sport cups are about the same in the dry yeah but neither is very rain tire they just sport cup in the dry you think wow I mean they run as a rain tire it's an compound with a nearly secca illegal tread wear rating so I will tell you that you have the same issue in this car that I have with my Vanquish which is that you now have three pedals in a space meant for two exactly and therefore you have no dead pedal which is sort of a bummer but at least you're smaller than me and don't have big bread low feet like I have I have big rad low feet and so that's an issue to me but this thing is awesome dude even though I'm not going as fast as know if you just leave this in second if you down shift a second up here just leave it just leave it in second just rev it out okay you'll you'll be I'll do it for you Carl the Caden shifter is the best that's my favorite thing about the whole car you do have 7,000 RPM to play with me is this thing fast this is the best Jag ever I mean it's got didn't you mentioned in in one of your 47 emails that you have a better power to weight ratio than V8 F Type yeah what's crazy is so people who kind of know the history of these cars will say to me well that's the last of the steel Jaguars the last of the steel sedans it must be really heavy No in fact this car is 800 lb lighter than the new aluminum light X these things were always the lightest cars in their class always like you compare this to the is probably in bad taste but the princess Die edition s glass yeah oh my god well that's a tank I mean this thing is so cool I love it I love that it's a long wheel base you know what I mean there's so much not giving a in a long wheelbase car this is like the uh I had a guy here in La asked me uh so like why this all the project cars why I'm like you know the XJ is like it's like if a Jason STM character were a real person this is what he drive it is yeah this is like proper transporter cuz like what's Jaguar right Grace space Pace I think you have Grace in here maybe not with the 15 52s I I love I love Matt crook but I it wouldn't be my wheel choice to put these on here I think there's there's probably another solution that might mash the style a little better but I mean the engine is definitely the pace and the long wheelbase is the space all right I'll just Mt it in first do it well that that noise from there is scary but you assure me that it's fine I'll believe you they tell me it's fine if they say so whoever they is right dude I'm so glad you brought this thing down here this thing is so awesome it's completely unlike any other project car because who does a full-size sedan project car like nobody right and you're I I imagine you said you must have said to yourself if I am going to put a manual in this car it must be a based on your outfit right you know what I mean you're a you're a finished guy you you definitely like you go you know you go you got everything matches and that's how it's got to be with your car I imagine right yeah yeah I mean this everybody who sits in this car who's at all not even like Enthusiast level but at all into cars yeah is like wow I wish I could do that in my car I wish I could do this do if you ever want to sell this will you promise to call me first I will call you like I'm not saying now and I know you you should keep it this fits now that we've met in person this fits you really well better than it fits me but if you ever want to sell it you must call me first because this thing is the coolest thing well that's that's a hell of an endorsement I appreciate it so uh your your Magnum t-56 do you have the super long six like a vet or is it close ratio like CTS yeah this the road race gears the CT close ratio 6 feet so how is your fuel economy um pretty laughable especially cuz I I like to test Lian felters CL um but honestly anything that's 6.2 L and can spin reliably at 7 Grand and puts out this kind of power is pretty impressive so forget the economy what's your range can you go to San Francisco or something on one tank or is it is it that bad no it's not that bad you you could get here you could get here from Reno if you stretched a tank that's not so bad and you have we've got air conditioning going you have a radio I mean there's you have zero Sacrifice from Jaguar's uh Mission with this car absolutely and some is that Bost in the wood or is that a sticker no seriously that's awesome it's a sticker that I clear coated over that looks like it's in the wood that looks great he has a little 6.2 L badge there that looks like it could easily be Factory what you'd never guess is this is dipped in what that's not wood really that's di alumo no way that looks great dude Carl this thing is the tits this is so money I'm so comfortable in here this is the best car ever I mean it really is like you know I would try and get rid of that noise cuz that's a little disconcerting but like you're 99.7% there I want to like hang on I'm just going to leave the camera I love your ear eere is there I just want to what happened oh there we go I want to sit in the back real quick I want to see we're going to let it roll oh yeah I mean even with your seat as far back as your seat is yeah what's really amazing is back here the the floors are really high my knees are like in my face but I can fit behind myself back here this is brilliant thank you guys for watching thanks for finally making it down here thanks M that is awesome oh my God please call me if you ever want to sell this it's the best see you guys later thanks\n"