1984 Jaguar XJ-S Lynx Eventer Can Show The XF A Thing Or Two About Shooting Brakes

Sportbrake: that’s what Jaguar calls the estate version of its XF saloon. Not quite a shooting brake, since it has five doors, not three. But the car you see here is the genuine article, and a rare one at that.

It’s a 1984 Jaguar XJ-S Eventer. It’s one of only 67 converted by coachbuilder Lynx and it’s coming up for auction.

The XJ-S was the successor to the legendary E-Type, the two-door counterpart to the XJ sedan, and precursor to the XK that followed. Jaguar made more than 115,000 of them over the course of 21 years of production, from 1975 through 1996. Some were coupes and some were convertibles. But the factory left it to Lynx to create the shooting brake version you see here.

While some of those converted were powered by straight six engines, this example packed Jaguar’s long-serving V12, a 5.3-liter unit that produced 295 horsepower. These days even the base 2.0-liter turbo Ingenium inline-four offered in the F-Type (among other models) produces slightly more. Such is the relentless march of progress in the automotive industry. And little wonder that Jaguar retired the V12 in ’97, when the XJS (as it was then labeled, sans the dash) was finally replaced by the eight-cylinder XK.

The 20th such Eventer shooting brake made, chassis serial number SAJJNAEW3BC113109, was originally delivered in beige and in right-hand drive. But CKL (an offshoot of Lynx) later converted it to left-hand drive, restored it, and repainted it in black. After spending the last several years in Belgium, the Jag wagon is having its interior refurbished before it hits the auction block.

Bonhams estimates it will sell for about €85,000 (>$100k), give or take ten grand, at its upcoming sale in Monaco.