XJ6 with an open-air feeling
THIS ORIGINAL JAGUAR XJ6 COUPE HAS REMAINED IN ONE FAMILY FOR ALMOST ALL ITS 42-YEAR LIFE AND IS A REAL SURVIVOR
Survivor classic or older cars are special because they are original, unmolested, and usually greatly loved. Sue Jury’s English White 1976 Jaguar XJ6C pillarless hardtop coupé falls neatly into this category. The Jury Jaguar has been in the same family for all but a few months of its 42-year life, and the car’s fine condition is testament to the manner in which it has been cared for and almost always garaged. Sue and husband David have a passion for Jaguars, and a newer example of the marque resides alongside the XJ6C in the couple’s North Shore home in Auckland.
In the blood
Sue could not help but admire Jaguars after her upbringing — her father, Dr Ian Wilson, combined his passion for flying with a passion for the Coventry cats. Ian was on his second E-type when he saw the almost-new XJ6C at John Martin Motors in Tauranga in March 1977.
Wilson purchased the car for $25,750 — which would have been close to the new list price — and presented it to his wife, Jessie, as a gift. For the next three years, the Jaguar was an integral part of the couple’s activities. It survived various scrapes and abuses dealt to it by the Wilsons’ teenage daughters
Susan and Cheryl, including the occasion when they allowed the coupé to roll down the driveway hill and crash into Ian’s E-type.
Passing the baton
Sadly, Ian died suddenly in 1979, and Jessie was faced with selling his plane and one of the two Jaguars. She liked the E-type, but kept the XJC, which was deemed more practical with its wide doors and superior rear seat room. Jessie and the XJC became a familiar sight around Remuera streets, and there were regular trips to visit family in Warkworth.
Even after losing her driver’s license, Jessie kept the Jaguar, admiring and sitting in the car in the garage and keeping it meticulously clean. Only a privileged few were allowed to drive the car, and then only if Jessie was in the front passenger seat giving instructions. When she moved to a rest home at the age of 90, the family promised to keep the car, and daughter Sue’s car was exiled from the garage to make way for the XJC.
Still running
Since then, Sue and David have continued to take good care of the Jaguar, using it to win a Bruce Mclaren Trust rally, take fourth place in the Survivors Class at the 2018 Intermarque Concours d’elegance at the Ellerslie Classic Car Show, and compete in Auckland Jaguar Drivers’ Club gymkhanas and driving trips. Apart from a little corrosion along the lower sides of the body, the car is in great shape. Out on the road, the XJC feels highly manageable, with no rattles and minimal wind noise, retaining that old silky ride and low mechanical noise, with little sign that the odometer has clicked over 134,000km.
Wind down the front and rear windows, and this Jaguar has a wonderful open-air feeling that makes it something of a semicabriolet. Is this another of those best-kept classic car secrets?
Jessie’s insistence on garaging and protecting the car from harsh sunshine has paid dividends, with the interior still in good shape and the chrome brightwork looking almost as good as new. A senior citizen this venerable XJC may be, but there is still a lot of life left in the old girl yet.
I surprise Sue by saying that I own an XJ12C, and then produce a 1:36-scale Corgi model of this relatively rare Jaguar. Therein lies a story, because the XJ Coupé is perhaps the first and only car to have gone on sale as a toy well before the actual car was available
An old model
I surprise Sue by saying that I own an XJ12C, and then produce a 1:36-scale Corgi model of this relatively rare Jaguar. Therein lies a story, because the XJ Coupé is perhaps the first and only car to have gone on sale as a toy well before the actual car was available. Jaguar unveiled the XJC in conjunction with the short-wheelbase Series 2 XJ6 sedan on which it is based at the 1973
London Motor Show, but final development and teething difficulties meant that the car did not go into production until 1975.
Problems arose with window sealing, water leaks, and noise, while the structural rigidity and flexing of the roof caused the paint to crack — so all XJCS came with a black vinyl roof as standard! Today, many restored XJCS have dispensed with the vinyl and newer technology means that paints are proving more resilient. The car’s elongated doors were made out of a lengthened standard XJ front door, and weld seams are visible under the interior panels where the two front door wheels were grafted together.
There are no central door pillars, and extra strengthening was achieved by widening the rear corner panels to reinforce the roof. The visual effect is that of an attractive and purposeful coupé, while the passenger accommodation longitudinally is identical to the standard-wheelbase four-door sedan.
Modifications were made to the bulkhead to cope with revised heating, ventilation, and optional air conditioning. Jaguar claimed to suppress noise in the passenger compartment even further with the use of a new type of moulded floor covering.
Rising asset
All XJCS were built at Coventry at a time when British Leyland was plagued with problems and the cost-cutting that affected many of its products. The final examples were made in 1978, and the total production figure for all models was 10,426. Very few were imported into New Zealand.
As mint condition examples realize as much as £30K in Britain, a school of thought suggests that the XJC is ready for its moment in the spotlight. As far as Sue Jury is concerned, though, the sensuous-looking coupé has always been in the limelight.