ROBERT COUCHER The Driver
Every Anglophile classic car enthusiast loves a Jaguar. I know I do after 10 wonderful years with my XK140 fixed-head coupé. It has been a ‘rolling restoration’ but throughout I have loved its looks, that stonking engine and the way it performs. The big six-cylinder motor is quiet and refined and produces more than enough easy power to grab the attention of the period-correct 185x16 Michelin tyres.
Since the inception of his Swallow Sidecar Company in 1921, William Lyons always produced eye-catching vehicles. The first to be called ‘Jaguar’, a 2.5-litre saloon, was introduced in 1935; arguably, though, his most important was the XK120, launched at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1948. The XK’s coachwork was intended just to show off the new XK engine, but with its stunning looks it wowed the large crowds so much, and caused so many orders to be offered, that Jaguar had to press the car into production. It convinced Jaguar that sports cars were what it should manufacture, and this 120mph beauty put the Coventry company slap-bang into the top drawer.
‘I wanted it like a child wanted candy!’ exclaimed American actor Clark Gable when he first set eyes on an XK120, and he took delivery in 1949 of the first aluminiumbodied roadster to reach America. Two years later he ordered another one. Other XK120-owning actors included Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart, while later on Steve McQueen loved his XKSS – chassis number 713, now in the Petersen Museum. All this star coverage quickly fuelled the Jaguar legend in the US, the UK and throughout Europe, helped by Jaguar’s domination – five wins, starting in 1951 – of the Le Mans 24 Hours in the 1950s.
The C-type was an evolution of the XK120, but the D-type was very different. It morphed into the most advanced Jaguar of the time, the incomparably beautiful E-type. Indeed, a Series 1 roadster is on permanent exhibition in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, one of only six cars to receive this distinction.
With its monocoque tub and tubular front subframe, independent suspension, disc brakes all round and that lovely engine tuned to 265bhp (a ‘gross’ figure, admittedly), the E-type left roadgoing Ferraris of the day for dead, made Astons feel like lorries and blew those dainty doors clean off any tail-happy Gullwing.
While building one of the fastest, most keenly priced and beautiful sports cars in the world, Jaguar continued to construct saloon cars. But not in the traditional sense: the most amusing Jaguar has to be the Mk2 3.8, in manual-with-overdrive form. Here was a sports saloon to really grab you by your tweed lapels. You could even say that Jaguar invented the category, by shoving its powerful 3.4-litre motor into the unsuspecting compact four-door Mk1. Jaguar then let it loose as an all-conquering saloon racer at the weekend, and a businessman’s express on the soon-to-be-opened M1 motorway during the week.
So which is the best Jaguar? I’d suggest the XJ6. This elegant saloon really was the best car in the world when launched. As with the XK120 and E-type, it moved the dynamic goal posts to the other end of the field.
The XJ6 was miles ahead of anything else in its refinement and performance delivery. It might not have been the fastest saloon when launched in ’68 – Benz’s 6.3 had grabbed that mantle – but it offered Rolls-Royce levels of NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) suppression at real-world prices that executives enjoyed immensely. That ‘Grace, Space and Pace’ slogan summed up the best-selling Jaguar of all time. The most desirable XJ6 has to be the early shortwheelbase car on steel wheels with hubcaps, with that lovely early interior. A manual 4.2 with overdrive will be the sportiest but I think an automatic suits the car better, especially in today’s traffic. We had a short-wheelbase Series 2 in the family for about 20 years, comprehensively improved with firmer damping, later ‘pepperpot’ alloys with wider rubber, and the previously lazy 4.2-litre engine tuned to a true 220bhp. My girlfriend’s father’s 6.3-litre 300SEL Merc proved impossible to catch, though. I chased her in the Jag when she was at the wheel of the big Merc; you gotta love a young girl who can handle 369lb ft of old-fashioned torque.
The XJ40 remake of the XJ6 idea had a long gestation period and a new AJ6 straight-six engine. I don’t really like the looks, but the XJ12 version has to be an interesting sleeper. The best of the long XJ6 line? A post-2000, X308 XJR. It looks purposeful, and with its 370bhp V8 it’s as amusing as the old 3.8 Mk2 while offering Merc E500 pace at a fraction of the price.
‘jaGUaR INvENTEd THE spORTs salOON By sHOvING ITs pOwERfUl 3.4 INTO aN UNsUspECTING COmpaCT fOUR-dOOR’