An American car buyer in 1985 looking for a new V12 coupe had two choices: spend today’s equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars on to Ferrari or Lamborghini …or get for Jaguar XJ-S for about a third of that price. Today Jewel of a car graveyard is one of those cars, found in a junkyard in Denver recently.
Jaguar started V12 engines in the E-Type bolts starting in 1971, then in the XJ12 sedan shortly after. By the time the E-Type was discontinued after 1974, Jaguar had spent the better part of a decade struggling with the near impossible task of developing a successor that looked just as good.
This eventually became the XJ-S, which was based on the chassis of the XJ sedan and made his debut as a 1976 model in the United States. Production continued until 1996.
These cars looked mean, were powerful and were full of English luxury in wood and leather, but they were also fickle and expensive to repair. I have have documented quite a few discarded XJ-S’s during my demolition runs.
This is a DOHC 5.3-liter engine, known as the HE for its improved combustion chambers and rated at 262 horsepower and 290 pound-feet. This was serious power for a year in which a new Corvette engine made 230 horses and the Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC coupe chugged along with a 184 hp V8.
The only transmission available on this car was a three-speed automatic from ZF.
The MSRP was even $36,000, which equates to about $107,170 in 2024 dollars. That compared favorably with other European luxury coupes; the 1985 BMW 635CSi was $41,315 ($122,993 after inflation), the Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC listed for $57,100 ($169,985 today) and the Porsche 928S cost $50,000 ($18,848 now). Detroit offered the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz coupe for $24,850 ($73,977) and the Lincoln Mark VII Bill Blass Edition for $26,659 ($79,363).
The XJ-S was notorious for its expensive electrical and mechanical problems, so it’s a struggle for third or fourth owners to keep theirs in running order. Some give up the V12 and swap to small-block Chevrolet V8s.
The gauge cluster in this one was purchased by a junkyard shopper before I arrived, so I couldn’t get a definitive mileage. It looks like it was reset in 1987.
Here you see the V12 power, wrapped in soft leather, trimmed in rare wood and equipped with full luxury.
A combination of art and machine.
British Leyland was so proud of the XJ-S that it opened this iconic TV advert with a mid-1970s Playboy Bunny climbing into it.