JAGUAR XJ6

THE JAGUAR XJ6 was launched at the Paris motor show in 1968 and remains the company’s most important motor car. Not the fastest Jaguar, nor the most exciting, but certainly the most popular and therefore the most numerous Jaguar ever produced.

Jaguar Cars had launched its XK twin-cam straight-six in 1948, in the XK120. It was one of the best engines in the world and so it was perfect for the new XJ6 saloon, even though it was already 20 years old when the elegant new car arrived. In 4.2-litre guise (the 2.8-litre version was unreliable and tended to overheat), the XK engine went on for a further 18 years before being replaced by the AJ6 in 1986. The Jaguar V12 engine was also an option for the XJ12 and Daimler Double Six models.

The early Series 1 XJ was the purest and the best-looking but it suffered a lack of rear legroom, so a long-wheelbase version was launched in 1972 with an extra four inches of passenger cabin room, and the standard wheelbase was discontinued with the arrival in 1973 of the Series 2. A pillarless coupé version was built between 1975 and ’78 with both six- and 12-cylinder engines, but they were timeconsuming to produce and suffered wind noise.

The graceful Series 3 was launched in 1979, with its roofline redesigned by Pininfarina. The lesselegant, rectangular-headlight XJ40 arrived in 1986, replaced by the X300 in 1994 and the X308 in 1997. The all-new X350 and subsequent X358, with aluminium body, are great Jaguars – especially in supercharged V8 form – and were superseded by the current XJ in 2009.