A car that we know well has returned, but this time with some more fascinating history. This 1989 V12 XJS was always a great example, incredibly lightly used and consequently extremely original.
If you were viewing this car in this condition in 1992 you’d think you’d found a nice one. Seeing it now you will not believe that it left Brown’s Lane 34 years ago.
The secret is that it has never really been anywhere, but has lead a charmed life of heated garages and expert mechanical attention.
However there was always a suspicion that this was a bit more special, and recently confirmation of a fun part of it’s past life has come to light online!
Here is the car, completely unchanged from how it is now being rather sensibly reviewed by a prototype Clarkson – who has changed a bit!
It is a rare and fascinating privilege to have such a clear view of a production car’s life over nearly 3 decades.
So here’s the full story. Our car starts off as one of the last true Jaguars, rolling off the line just before the Ford buyout.
The Service History show that the car was in Jaguar ownership for just over a year, before being quietly released into the wild.
The car finds a new buyer recently moved from Guildford to the South Coast, a retirement present perhaps? In 5 years he manages 6000 miles, and a couple of bills for non starting due flat batteries and sticking brakes suggest that the lack of use made the car unreliable and the owner became bored of having it recovered all the way back to HA Fox in Guildford? So maybe in 1996, after the car is recovered to Harwoods in Pulborough (‘vehicle gets very little use’ is actually written on the invoice) they show him a lovely, shiny new, just launched XK8, and he chops the XJS in? That would explain how it ends up at auction at Blackbushe.
Now this is where it usually goes wrong – big powerful cars superseded by a new model ending up at auction and being snapped up by buyers that want the thrill and kudos but haven’t got the resources to keep going for long. Maintenance takes a back seat and in no time it is over. The cars pass through lots of owners, getting cheaper and less reliable until the end comes.
As Paul Duchene sagely observes in his article on Hagerty Media
‘ . . . if you can’t afford to buy the best Jaguar XJ-S, you certainly can’t afford the worst.’
But in this case owner is perfect and saves the car from this fate. He takes the car to Berkshire, and there it stays. Literally. If owner 2 could barely be bothered to open his garage doors, then this chap had lost the keys! From 2001 to 2011 he manages . . . .1460 miles.
Since 2011 maintenance has been entrusted to KWE, who know these cars inside out, with the brief to keep the car as fresh as it was when it left the factory, whilst keeping it all original. No upgrades, no tweaks, just everything working and sensible precautions taken.
I doubt there’s an XJS out there with a Service History like this one.
This late model pure Jaguar V12 XJ-S represents the swan song of British development and engineering – there is an unbroken line of automotive DNA between this car and the 1950s XJs, passing through the glories of the C-type and D-type racers, the legendary Mark II and beautiful E-types. Look into the engine bay of this car and you are seeing history.
Originality is key to value, but to renovate a tired XJ-S to this standard could cost over £100K, and that’s if you could find one with as low mileage to begin with. And then after all that it wouldn’t be original.
There is no doubt that the XJ-S is going continue to fulfil it’s potential as an appreciating asset, and we doubt there are many out there as good in terms of condition, mileage and history as this one.
The car was sold by Iconic Auctions at the Classic Car Show at the NEC 2023
