The original Jaguar XJ-S, which was unveiled in 1975, was the last car whose styling had been influenced by Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons before his retirement. Before it was launched, however, that style was modified to comply with US legislation. The result was that this bulky four-seater was a car which did not appeal to the same clientele as the XK, and E-type owners.
The XJ-S took its inspiration from the peerless XJ6/XJ12 saloon, for it was built around a shortened version of that car’s pressed steel platform. Apart from saving a fortune in time, cost, and tooling investment, one obvious benefit was that the XJ-S also shared the same independent suspension, and the same outstanding qualities of ride and handling. No other car in the world had felt – and been – as refined as the XJ6, and the XJ-S could match it in all respects.
Like the XJ12 saloons, original XJ-Ss were all fixed-head coupés fitted with 5.3-litre V12 engines, and all but a handful had automatic transmission. Wide and squat, they were fitted with controversial ‘flying buttresses’ which linked the roof panel to the rear corners of the shell. Although four seats were fitted, customers rarely used them as more than spacious two-seaters with mountains of stowage space. |
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Very high performance and excellent ride and handling qualities had to be measured against the styling, and often ferocious thirst for fuel, but this was still a package which appealed, especially to North American buyers. Once the early quality problems had been eradicated, sales rose steadily, and the addition of 3.6-litre straight-six engines, and a clever cabriolet body style, made this a more versatile prospect.
Originally, though, there was no full convertible type. A private enterprise conversion from the USA finally persuaded Jaguar to engineer its own type which finally appeared in 1988 in V12 form. After a rear-end restyle in 1991 made the buttresses less blatant, it became even more popular in the USA, becoming the best-selling XJ-S variant. Once a more efficient 4.0-litre six-cylinder version went on sale in the early 1990s, it became another Jaguar success.
By 1996, when the XK8 finally took over from the long-running XJ-S, a total of 115,413 cars of all types had been made, of which more than 30,000 of these were XJ-S convertibles. Solid, well-engineered and reliable, they were classics from the start, and should remain so well into the 21st century.
Most models were four seater, fixed-head coupés with very high performance and excellent handling qualities.
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