Hello all,
I've contemplated writing this for quite some time and only now am finding the motivation to get it done!
It's a pretty common trope amongst petrol-heads that you should never, ever meet your heroes. As I sit and write this, I can quite safely say that is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard.
The seed is sown
Growing up, and having taken a rather obsessive interest in cars at an early age, I'd often talk to my dad about the cars he had owned. For seemingly hours at a time he would tell me about the variety of fast Rovers and Vauxhalls he'd had. The 820 Vitesse and Cavalier SRI would commonly come up. Inevitably, they'd always end up being spoken about in glowing terms, but there was always a caveat:
None were ever as good as "the Jag".
The Jag in question was a Series 1 4.2 XJ6, and I would listen to the old man talk about it time and time again. It was the fastest, coolest, best thing ever to my child's mind and it doesn't take Sigmund Freud to work out why I've subsequently grown up idolizing everything there is about Jaguar ownership. Whether it's the slightly rogue-ish nature to a Jag, the inherent status associated with owning one, the looks, or simply the fact that they always tend to be extremely fast and ostentatious cars, there was always a sense of "when" rather than "if" I would end up getting one.
As I got into my teens and approached the age where getting a car was a genuine possibility, it goes without saying that an XJ6 wouldn't be a viable first car, but it didn't stop me from doing my research for when the day came. I quite quickly realized that an early Series 1 or 2 would probably not be attainable for the foreseeable. Not only are decent examples extortionately priced, the idea of daily driving a 40+ year old car with twin stromberg carbs rather felt like something which I might regret. I also felt that the disconnect between such an old car and the modern cars I was used to would be too jarring. Fine for a one-off, but as a proposition to own one- it felt like a step too far. A series 3 might work, but I felt they didn't have the same handsomeness that the early models do. X300, again, may work. It's very much a modern re-imagining of the classic Jag shape after all. However, cliché as it sounds the first time I saw an XJ40 I realized that this was the car I wanted.
The 40 at a glance
Although it might not seem it, the naughty 40 was a bold step in a new direction for Jaguar. Save for the addition of blocky bumpers and a resized grille, the XJ6 had largely stayed the same throughout the prior 3 generations, but the 40 bucked this trend by capturing a more 80s "futuristic" vibe. Laughable by today's standards, of course, as it looks about as futuristic as a Shakespeare play in 2020- but I understand that upon launch there was dismay at the perceived loss of the classic Jaguar styling which had been threaded through the prior XJ6 models. The classic Jaguar double round headlights, which were an option for the 40, had been replaced in top spec models with "fishtanks". The body had a more angular, straight edged appearance than the voluptuous older models, and the interior was similarly (at the time) cutting edge with a full LCD display which could display a number of fault codes, as well as provide useful information such as fuel economy and range. The passage of time would eventually culminate in many of these changes being re-negged upon. Later 40s had analogue dials and usually round lights, and by the time the X300 was born it had gone almost entirely back to the styling found in early XJ6s. The XJ40 had, for a long time, been looked at as the black sheep of the Jaguar family and purists will rarely find them an appealing model.
My take on it is that the XJ40s differences from the rest of the XJ6 range do not detract from it being a true Jaguar, and nor do they make it any less alluring. The square-jawed angular styling gives the car a more masculine, rugged appearance than its curvaceous predecessors, and I also find it to be particularly caddish even when compared to other Jaguars. This is all my perception, though.
The Jag cherry is popped
Fast forward to 2019 and I am working a good job and making decent money. It was around this time that the prospect of actually buying a Jaguar seemed like a real possibility. I scoured facebook and ebay quite often, not specifically to look but to see what was around. As is the case for most luxury cars, the market appears to have separated in time- you can either get a real ropey one for cheap, or a well kept garage queen for megabux. Neither appealed to me. Firstly, the old adage goes that "there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Jag" and I didn't particularly want a resto job because with Jag prices, it would be a false economy. However, I also didn't want something I'd be frightened to use. Eventually I happened across a beautiful arctic blue early model 3.6 sov on carandclassic which fit the bill. Rather at the high end of my budget for 3k, but low miles at 80k and not far away.
It took me three visits before I bit the bullet. I had a pretty mixed feeling about the whole thing, to tell the truth. I did want to buy the Jag, but I was also acutely aware that this was the kind of decision which could come back to bite me if I got it wrong. It seemed straight and the seller is a classic car mechanic who I could tell had a real passion for 40s like I do (I've since seen him at a few classic shows in his TWR). He offered that any work that needed doing he would be up for taking care of, we had a haggle, and the life's goal had been achieved.
Driving a holy grail car is a very weird experience, and driving a Jag for the first time is also a weird experience. The two combined made for the drive home to be a very memorable experience. I was immediately stuck by how unbelievably well an old car like this could handle the rigours of modern driving. It felt sharp and adept on the backroads for such a big car, but once on the motorway it truly came into its own. The 3.6 AJ6 engine was another first for the 40 and it replaced the aging XK straight 6. It's fuel injected and puts out roughly 220bhp through a 4 speed ZF gearbox. The sensation of speed in this car is like no other I've felt. Having 4 long gears mean that the in-gear acceleration is not earth-shattering, but with a remarkably flat torque curve it is incredible how it just keeps accelerating and never seems to run out of puff. It is, like a true luxury car, remarkably fast in a "long legged" kind of way. Stamping on the throttle will kick down, and this will give a burst of acceleration which, regardless of which speed it is done at, feels like being pushed through the drivers seat.
It was also on this drive home that I did something for the first time, which I would become very familiar with over the following year- fill up with some petrol.
Anyway, here's a pic from when I bought it- and that concludes part one:
. Over there parts were horrendously expensive and with both fuel pumps and the over drive packing up in a year, it hurt my already skinny wallet a lot. Having said that, it was a dream to drive and even when a copper pulled me over on a routine check and asked if the Jag was my dads car, it always made me happy.
