Owning an XJS

‘After buying it in 1999, I realised that I had acquired the very first facelift model to be fitted with the AJ16 engine – the car having been assembled as the last of the prototype mules to be signed off,’ says Richard Monk. ‘Avoiding rain and salt means annual mileage is only 3000 and the car is probably over-serviced with Slick 50 replacing a litre of oil at each change. Front suspension and steering rack bushes have been upgraded, throttle body and crank sensor renewed, belts and coolant hoses changed and the oil cooler transfer pipes renewed and the car under-sealed twice. Maintenance costs for the last 19 years have been entirely according to the age of the car with one nasty exception when a botched throttle potentiometer repair caused successive ECUS to go rogue, necessitating expert forensic work by Jaguar guru David Marks to trace the fault and carry out brain surgery on the second ECU.’