With the posh front of a Jag and the working-class rear of a Morris Minor, this 1959 Jaguar XK150 shooting brake was one of C&SC’s rather more unusual standouts in our monthly Case histories (formerly One you can buy).
The wood-panelled XK150 may look like the perfectly choreographed result of a rear-end shunt with a humble Morris, but it’s actually one of two early-1970s XK-cum-Morris-Minor Traveller creations by a chap named Geoffrey Stevens. And it’ll be up for sale at Bonhams’ annual Goodwood Revival sale next Friday, 16 September.
Stevens is believed to have contrived his woody estates as a way of combining his two passions: classic cars and dogs. His efforts on each car came at the expense of three Morris Minor Travellers that were cannibalised for body parts.
With the minimal increase in weight over the original donor fixed-head XK150, the Foxbat (as it was called) boasted similar performance and enough poke for a tow hook.
When C&SC’s Alastair Clements tested it back in February 2000, the car was on offer from a London dealer for £14,950 and was in need of some cosmetic attention.
Recently returned from a French collection, Bonhams is hoping the Foxbat will change hands for more than double that, judging by the sale house’s £30-35,000 estimate.
See: Bonhams Revival sale for more.
