Jaguar XJR X350.
By Jonathan Campbell
Only a select few knew how special this car was. It didn’t sell in large numbers, which means there aren’t many prowling the roads. They are rare. So rare in fact that they’re being imported back to UK from Japan […]
Discovering an obsessive object is one of the great joys of writing for The Obsessive. Only a select few knew how special this car was. At launch it was positively received by the press and it was profitable but didn’t sell in large numbers, which means there aren’t many prowling the roads. They are rare. So rare in fact that they’re being imported back to UK from Japan.
The reason the X350 Jaguar XJR failed to sell in numbers is a classic automotive tale of engineers and designers versus the management. Ford owned Jaguar and they wanted to reinstate Jaguars glory days and take the fight to the German brands particulary BMW so they ploughed a huge amount of money into the development of the X350. It was the first mass produced car to have a full aluminium unibody chassis and bodywork making it 40% lighter and 50% stiffer than its predecessor. To build this unibody was expensive and required aerospace techniques of production.
To join the body together needed 3,200 self piecing zinc coated baron rivits and 110m of robotically applied, heat cured, aerospace grade epoxy adhesives. The sophisticated suspension is a multi link four wheel adaptive self levelling air system providing that magic carpet ride or “Jaguar waft”.
The X350 was packed with innovation and the designers wanted to create an equally modern design but the management wanted a more traditional style, more classic Jaguar XJ. The management won and styling was a conservative evolution of the previous XJ's look. Exterior styling was by principal designer Tom Owen, along with Sandy Boyes, under the design directorship of Geoff Lawson, who died midway through the project, his successor was the great Ian Callum.
The XJ's interior was styled by Giles Taylor. By going down the traditionally styled route the car buying public just saw the new Jaguar as another “Old man’s motor”. It never threatened BMW. It was the last Jaguar built at Jaguar’s Brown Lane factory in Coventry. Production ended in March 2009 after seven years, with a total production of 83,566.
Now all this is good news for us today, it means for very little money we can have a luxury car and in the case of the XJR variant one that can do 150mph (restricted) with its 4.2L supercharged V8 engine producing nearly 400BHP. The styling has aged well because it was traditional in its day and not cutting edge or fashionable.
When new my XJR would’ve been about £60K in the UK, I can’t imagine what the Japanese gentleman who ordered it would’ve paid as mine was built for the Japanese market, which means it is immaculate and I paid a dealer £7K for the priviledge of owning her. Owning her has been an absolute pleasure, literally never gone wrong, she wafts motorway miles away with ease and if need be can really fly, the acceleration is a joy with the supercharger whining.
My XJR really lives up to the famous Jaguar slogan of Grace, Space and Pace.
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