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Avon - who more famously built a drophead version of Jaguar's Series II XJ Coupe - turned the graceful Series III XJ into an estate in the early '80s. The top of the body from B-post back was removed, and the upper part of the tailgate was from a Renault 5. It would have set you back £6500 on top of the price of an XJ saloon, and looked rather hearse-like at the rear, but was, allegedly, beautifully made. Certainly, secondhand examples of the handful that were built are snapped up quickly today. The rear seats didn't fold totally flat and the fuel tanks intruded into the load space, so practicality was limited.
Much more interesting was the MkII County estate. In the late '50s, Jaguar works drivers Duncan Hamilton and Mike Hawthorn hatched the idea of producing an estate version of the Jaguar 3.4 saloon. They brought in racing artist Roy Nockholds to advise on the styling but before any cars were built Hawthorn was killed in a car accident and the project was halted. When the MkII Jaguar was announced in 1959 the idea gained new impetus and a single car was built by the coachbuilders Jones Brothers, based on the 3.8 litre version of the new MkII. Jaguar acquired the car and used it as a service barge following the works race and rally cars around Europe. It was a surprisingly harmonious looking vehicle - eventually it was sold into the trade in the '60s and ended up in America in the late '70s. It has now been restored (very unsympathetically considering its historic importance, with vulgar modern seats and the like) and lives in Holland.
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