Don’t Believe all you READ are TOLD & what you SEE.

Started 9th February 2017 at 16:00 · John Bleasdale

📷 No photo added

What’s new? Yesterday I spent several hours on the phone with Essex Classic Car Auctions,They rang to see if I had any information on a 1986 Cabriolet they had been asked to sell.
The owner said he had owned if for 20 years, and the previous owner told him it was one of 20 Manufactured for the American market but they did not want them. They were converted to RHD, sounds familiar, problem is it’s a V12. He also said the car was a spare for the Diana Cabriolet,the Diana car is a 1987. He also said it had been used by Jaguar for racing, Having been given the Vin 132427 I find its not on the Data Base. The engine # did not show up either. Paint & Trim codes were not the same as the Ex Diana, car. As they had sold several Cabriolet through their hands over the years, they were convinced it was genuine and a very nice car and the owner was looking for £16K but something was not quite right.
I then had a thought can we get the Vin Prefix? Yes SAJ-JNAEW3BC final proof it’s not a Cabriolet– Question how did I know as soon as I wrote it down, without checking any thing.?

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- 10th February 2017 at 12:38 #2569
  
  Robin
  Participant
  
  Bleasie, Just to show you are not alone I respond by stating the maybe obvious..
  7th Letter denotes variant ie. C= Cabriolet, D= Convertible and E= Coupe
  
  So it’s a RHD auto, 5.3, HE Coupe not an original Cabriolet. Interesting..
  
  As I’m sure your aware from your Register work there were several companies offering conversions from coupes to cabriolets as well as full convertibles. I don’t think Lynx did cabriolet conversions (just convertibles) but Banbury Auto Services advertised in 1984 & 1985 in Motorsport & Jaguar Driver. TBM International were advertising as late as May 1998 for their conversions.
  
  I posted a couple of pics of adverts in my General Photos as I don’t use picture hosting..
  BAS conversion offered tilting targa panels too, be interested to see how that was achieved!
  
  Robin
- 10th February 2017 at 13:50 #2571
  
  John Bleasdale
  Participant
  
  Cheers Woodsmoke You of course are spot on the 7th letter was the proof I needed.
  What is more interesting about it all is How did they know about me & the web site & my phone number.
  I could not get any information from them.All I can think is they did not want the person that gave out my details in trouble.
  Re Conversions years ago I was told there was a company in Blackpool but I can’t remember their name. Problem I have is that owners of these CONVERSIONS will not accept the fact that I can’t add them to the data base. 5013 were built and thats it.
- 11th February 2017 at 00:41 #2589
  
  Laurence Jones
  Keymaster
  
  Its great that they consulted you John, and indeed were able to help.
  
  It’s good to keep the Register just for the 5013 Jaguar built Cabriolets, but a the same time good to see that some of the specialist built cars are still around. The distinction enables sellers and purchasers to know what they are selling and buying – folk themselves can decided on the value of the car in front on them then on the full facts.
  
  I’m hoping we’ll see more owners of these specialist built cars (Convertibles and Cabriolets) join the website and be active members – it will be interesting if they share similar issues with their cars as owners of Jaguar built cars do.
  
  I am intrigued about the tilting Targa Panels – lets see if anyone knows more details of these
  
  Laurence
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