My beautiful 1994 Jaguar XJS 4.0L Coupe is finally for sale. She went on eBay today, and I hope she will find a good family to take care of her. The eBay ad was pretty huge, considering all the details I had to put in. I listed all her options, current condition, and added a little history lesson for fun. She has some miles on her, but she also has about $24,000.00 put into her since 2001.
I had some great times in that car, including bringing her to several car shows and concours. She always attracted a crowd, and every time I took her out, someone would compliment me on her condition. One time another driver followed me to a store just to ask me about her. He had never seen a coupe, and wanted to see the inside.
My favorite part of owning that car was the way it looked. From the back, the “flying buttresses” create a sweeping line from the roof to the rear lights, and frames the window giving it almost an arch shape. The rear fog lights make the car look like an exotic car, and the front pilot/city headlamps glow when the low beams are off, giving it the appearance of glowing cat’s eyes. The car is much lower than a normal car, and only about 7 inches taller than a Ford GT40, and the length of the hood is massive, and has a great power bulge.
Inside, nothing is allowed to penetrate the silence. The car has the best concert stereo system I have ever seen, and there is almost no connection to the outside world when the windows are up. Leather is everywhere and thick carpets add to the feeling of elegance. The wood trim, which is a honey burled Elm is perfect, and really glows warmly in the early evenings. Plus, as a really cool option, the car has a weather radio integrated into the system. I have no need to use it, but once during a snow storm it was cool to show it off as a 1990’s toy.
I have driven that car for about 4 years and as a daily driver in the beginning. I also have a few tickets from when I decided to test out the top speed. The highest my nerves could allow me to go was about 140mph on a dead straight section of a desolate highway. The car had no problem getting there, and the ride was still, calm, and rock steady.
I wrote about how the front end of the car seems to be wider than the back, and it feels like driving a power boat. I think it is because of the taper in the rear buttresses, and the way the front rises when you stomp on the gas. It is a cool car to drive, very quick around corners thanks to the speed sensitive power steering, and purrs like a cat. It also has a strange dash, where the distance from the instrument cluster to the window is only about an inch. Get in a new car with a huge two foot deep dash, and my little Jag seems like a toy, or a go cart.
I’ll miss my car, but it is time for me to move on. I have started to look around for my next project, and hope to find one soon. As a person who is all about car design, I doubt I will ever find anything as beautiful, or as different. I’ll keep the beautiful photos to remember her by.
Photos and article courtesy of Chris Raymond
