History of Lynx
The Lynx Motor Company was founded in 1968 by engineer Guy Black and architect Roger Ludgate. In the early years, Lynx specialised in the repair, maintenance and tuning of sports and racing cars. During the company's involvement with a number of factory Jaguar C- and D-types, Lynx's skills were applied to develop an alternative to the famous Le Mans-winning D-type. The result was the Lynx D-type, launched at the London Racing Car Show in 1974. The car was fabricated entirely in aluminum and was powered by Jaguar mechanicals. The car was an instant success and a total of 53 Lynx D-types were constructed, including 9 in XKSS form.
In parallel, Lynx was commissioned by Jaguar to become involved in the further development of the E-Type, both with engineering services and the construction of pre-production vehicles. Competition has always been at the heart of engineering development at Lynx and following its rebuild in 1982 of the Jaguar factory Lightweight E-type Lynx decided to hand-build 5 Lynx Lightweight E-type. Other models of Jaguars that benefited from the Lynx treatment included the 1975 XJS coupes, which were initially modified to a convertible in 1976, called the Lynx Spyder. In 1983, Lynx designed and built their estate version of the XJS model, the Lynx Eventer, with a total run of 67 cars. These models provided the mainstay of the company's output during this time.​​
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In the early 1980s, the company went through some structural changes. In 1980 it was still known as Lynx Motor Co and was based in East Sussex. In the following year, Lynx Replica Sales Ltd was established as a separate entity, based in Kensington, London. 1982 saw the split of the sales and engineering parts of the business, with Lynx Sales Ltd established in London and Lynx Engineering Ltd taking care of production. In 1982 the two businesses merged as Lynx Motor Co Ltd, based in East Sussex, where it remained for the following 27 years. From 1988, the company finally traded as Lynx Motor Cars Limited and moved into new premises on the same street.
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March 1992 saw the company taken over by John Mayston-Taylor. The car enthusiast collected and restored high-quality classic automobiles himself, with Lynx Cars Limited initially continuing as part of another company (the successful family-owned timber trading company, CH Davis & Co Limited, which existed since 1949). From 1995, Mayston-Taylor used the company name Lynx Motors International Limited for the automotive division, however full legal autonomy under his name did not take place until the end of March 2000, when the division was spun off from the long-established trading company.
Under his leadership, Lynx created further new cars to order as individual pieces, in addition to the Lynx D-Type and XKSS, high quality reproductions of the E-Type Lightweight were added to the delivery program from 1994, with C-Types added from 1995. The company's main focus remained on the Eventer and the restoration of historic and classic cars, especially older Jaguars. In addition, spare parts were manufactured and individual vehicles were technically and aesthetically modified on behalf of customers.
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In 2009, Lynx production ended under Mayston-Taylor and Lynx Motors International Limited existed under the significant leadership of Nigel John Forsyth, who had taken over the trademark and naming rights to Lynx Motors, as well as the manufacturing equipment and materials. The detailed replicas of the older Jaguar models were again available as new cars and restorations of original vehicles continued as well as the reproduction of spare parts. As the demand for Lynx-Replicas declined again in the early 2010s, Lynx once again halted new car manufacturing and around 2013 sold parts of the inventory, particularly to Jaguar and partly to collectors and car enthusiasts.
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In 2014, LYNX Motors (International) Limited was founded. Forsyth bought the trademark and naming rights to the new company, which continued production of the earlier models. The other directors were the Czech entrepreneur Josef Lopata and the German engineer Johannes Schilcher. Lynx Motors offered faithful replicas of the Jaguar C-Type, D-Type, XKSS and E-Type Lightweight as new cars. There were also vehicle restorations, especially for original Jaguars, older Lynxes and also Porsches and Maseratis.
The bodies of the new car models were still formed in England, in a complex manual process from light metal sheets and riveted in the same way as the originals. For the British market, distribution ran exclusively through the trading company Hofmann's of Henley, otherwise it was directly through the manufacturer, based in the Czech Republic along with the management.
Frank Berger, the then Head of Sales & Marketing at Lynx, tried to re-establish Lynx production back in the UK, setting up Lynx Motors Engineering Limited along with Schilchder, then CEO of Lynx Motors (International) in 2019. The idea was to continue production of the earlier models and launch a new model, a Porsche based on the 964 with an aluminium body. The new company's head office was in Henley-on-Thames with production handcrafted in Coventry.
After some turbulent times, Lynx Motors (International) Limited, Lynx Motors Group Ltd and Lynx Motors Engineering Limited were all dissolved by 2023.
Lynx was rescued by new management in 2024 with Lynx Motors International Ltd once again formed, now based in the historic Cotswolds in the UK.
Supported by some of the best Jaguar restoration experts and specialists in the world, the current team are vested in returning the once vibrant brand of Lynx Motors back into a thriving and productive business, focussed on all restoration and maintenance works on existing Lynx models, including the C-Type, D-Type, XKSS and Eventer cars.
Lynx Motors International are also committed to succeed in being Carbon Neutral, recycling anything that can be reused or repurposed, and use solar/renewable energy whenever possible.
Lynx Motors International are very proud that 25% of all company profits are donated to charity.