Driving a Series 1 Jaguar XJ12

One of the cars I have always admired is the Series 1 Jaguar XJ.   It was an amazing piece of design, and well ahead of its time.   I think the series 1 XJ was culmination of Jaguar in their heyday before they were absorbed into the mess that was British Leyland.

In particular, the car I have always admired the most was the Series 1 V12, in either Jaguar or Daimler form.   The XJ was always designed to take the V12.  I think to this day it is still the only true mass produced V12 ever made.   Given it took a while to get the V12 XJ to market, it was only offered for about a year and a half before the XJ went to the series 2.

The XJ suffers from the reputation it gained in the late 70s and early 80s for poor quality. That keeps prices fairly low for what is an amazing car. It is interesting to wonder how much more successful the XJ would have been if Jaguar was not part of BL.  Certainly they could have afforded to update the cars and the quality would have been much better.

The V12 also has depressed values due to its prodigious thirst and reliability concerns.   The thirst is less of an issue for a classic car. Reliability was largely down to things like the ignition system which is now solved.    The V12 is an amazing engine – first designed as a race engine and then adapted for road use.   It revs up to 6500 rpm and is amazingly smooth and powerful.   The later cars went to very tall differential ratios and the HE head, which made them less thirsty but also less urgent.

I would like to own a series 1 V12 one day, so when a short wheel base XJ12 in British racing green came up for sale in Sydney about a month ago, I decided to go and have a look.  The SWB is quite a rare car.   There were 2,474 XJ12s and 534 Daimler Double Six made in short wheelbase.   When Jaguar moved to the Series 2 in late 1973, the V12s were all long wheelbase.

The owner was a very nice chap who had a collection of very nice Jaguars.   This included another series 1 V12 (an Australian delivered car), a couple of XJCs, and XJS, a modified XJ6 and more.  He was selling the green car as he had found an Australian delivered example.

The XJ12 was in British Racing Green, one of the best colours for the XJ12.  The car had originally been delivered with a cinnamon interior, but the seats and door cards had been changed later for series 2 versions in black.  The black leather with cinnamon carpets was actually quite a nice combination, if not original.  It was nice to see the original thin rim steering wheel.

By modern standards, the XJ is a very low and sleek car.   In its day, it was considered a large car.  Nowadays it is dwarfed by the massive SUVs on the road.   The V12 has quite an imposing front grille on the series 1.  I think is far better looking than the grille on the six.  The Daimler versions have the same grille on the Sovereign and Double Six.

Driving the car, it was very smooth and quiet.   The cabin was cozy and a nice place to be, and i found the controls and instruments easy to read and use.   I’m very all, and I was quite comfortable driving the XJ12.   On the test drive, we had an issue when the car wanted to conk out, but changing over to the other fuel tank fixed the issue.   Jaguar XJs have twin fuel tanks and the driver selects which one should be used.   Since they each have separate fuel pumps, you have redundancy with any fuel pump issues, which I later found was the issue.

I didn’t push the car very hard since it wasn’t mine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the drive.   There was a lot to like about the car, but on reflection I decided it was not the car for me.   I could definitely see myself owning one, some time in the future.  It is much easier to find a nice Series 2 or Series 3.  For me, it would have to be a series 1.

It was interesting comparing the 560SEL I drove to the test drive.   The W126 is a much larger and more imposing car, with more space.   The Jaguar has much lighter steering and a much cozier cabin.   Due to being lower to the ground, the Jaguar feels sportier to drive.   They both have a great ride.

I drove the XJ12 over a month ago, but didn’t post until the car was no longer listed for sale for a few weeks.  I didn’t want to interfere with the sale.