From small beginnings in his workshop in Coventry, England, engineer Neville Swales has been quietly creating meticulously engineered cars inspired by Jaguar’s 1966 XJ13 Le Mans Prototype. That car was originally designed to return Jaguar to their glory days at Le Mans and take on the might of Ford and Ferrari. Sadly, Jaguar’s car never turned a wheel in anger.
Neville’s cars take their inspiration from the 1966 Jaguar XJ13 Le Mans Prototype as it first left the Competition Department – as Malcolm Sayer envisaged it – before it was crashed at MIRA and rebuilt in 1972/73. The first completed car was a finalist in the 2016 International Historic Motoring Awards where it stood shoulder-to-shoulder against such icons as the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Ford GT40 and the 1956 Le Mans winning Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type. Neville’s first car has since been joined by a limited number of customer cars built to the same exacting standard.
Building The Legend has forged its name with these 1966 Le Mans Prototype evocations, and we have now focussed our attention our "E-Type Re-Imagined" series of cars. The bodystyle and finish of these bespoke hand-crafted cars are limited only by our customers' imaginations! Each car is hand-crafted using a blend of traditional skills and blended with cutting-edge technology - available in coupe, speedster, roadster or lowdrag race form - or anything in-between and beyond!
At the heart of each car is our own unique tera® quad-cam V12 in either 6.1 or 6.8-litre guise, inspired by the Ferrari V12s that screamed around the Le Mans circuit, and the missed chance for Jaguar to follow-up its straight-six success in endurance racing with a V12. Our engine is an evolution of the latter concept, with between 350bhp and in excess of 650bhp available.
The cars' bespoke natures continue elsewhere, with a vast range of options to tailor everything to your needs, from interior creature comforts to chassis and running-gear upgrades.
The words Jaguar, Jaguar XJ13, XJ13 are used in a historical/descriptive context and in no way suggest our recreations/replicas are approved by Jaguar. It is widely known that there was only ever one Jaguar XJ13 and any others can only ever be replicas, facsimilies, tributes, recreations, toolroom copies or similar.