Jaguar XJ 12 Coupé
Car-ID: XT0102
Vehicle Description
Let’s not get things confused: Blackjack is a popular card game, played in casinos around the world, and it’s all about the number 21. This here is a Black Jag, and it’s all about the 12: The mighty 5.3 litre 12-cylinder engine is what sets it apart, being de facto a unique selling point when the car was new. Built in 1978, the Series II XJ started life as a right-hand drive car. At some point in time, the Jaguar has been partly restored, repainted – not a bad idea, seeing that the original colour appears to have been baby blue – and converted to left-hand drive. The overall impression of this very elegant coupé is highly convincing: The black leather interior – believed to be original – is in good shape with an acceptable degree of patina. The burlwood dashboard, an absolute must-have for a British luxury car, is almost devoid of cracks, and the black headliner unstained. Engine compartment and boot both look clean and dry. The paint from 2013 and the chrome parts shine as befits a noble Jaguar. The XJ features power windows and centre armrests, both front and rear. Of course it also has the Borg Warner BW 12 automatic gearbox installed. The odometer reads a low mileage of not yet 67,000 km, which can however not be vouched for. The Black Jag has only last year received a new windscreen and new fuel tanks, and the front axle as well as the driveshaft have been overhauled. It comes with technical approval valid until 08/2016, German registration documents and historic plates.
The XJ may be regarded as Sir William Lyons’ masterpiece. It was the last car the co-founder of the Jaguar company designed, and what he had created in 1968 turned out to be perennial: The luxury sedan was built over 24 years with only minor modifications regarding the bodywork.
The XJ effectively replaced not only the S series, but the 420 and Mk II along with it, becoming the sole Jaguar saloon and one of the best known British motorcars. At first, only the XJ6 was available, but in 1972, a 12-cylinder version was added, the XJ12, at that time the world’s only mass-produced 12-cylinder sedan.
The first major facelift for the 1974 model year brought raised front bumpers and, consequently, a flatter radiator grille which made the XJ appear even more slender and elegant.
In 1979 the XJ was facelifted once more, incorporating a mild redesign by Pininfarina while largely retaining Sir Lyons’ original lines. Over the whole production span, around 318,000 XJ6 and XJ12 were produced, among them only 9,378 coupes.
One of the pecularities of the XJ is that it is equipped with two separate fuel tanks positioned on each side of the boot, each with its own chrome filler cap and a changeover switch on the dash.
