JAGUAR XJ SERIES 1
Jaguar’s most successful series of saloons began its career in October 1968 with the unveiling of the original XJ6, a model designed to eventually replace the company’s entire saloon car line-up. By 1969, a Daimler version of the same model – badged as the Sovereign – was on sale, while that same year the XJ6 received the accolade of Car magazine’s Car of the Year. It was clearly a success from day one, with a total of 13,729 XJs being sold in 1969 alone – more than twice the number of 420Gs sold during that model’s entire four-year career.
The motoring press agreed that the XJ6 was a game-changer for Jaguar, with Autocar commenting: “If Jaguar were to double the price of the XJ6 and bill it as the best car in the world, we would be right behind them. As it stands at the moment, dynamically, it has no equal regardless of price.”
Looking back, it is perhaps easy to see why the XJ6 was such a huge success. The suspension was bang up to date, with an independent set-up both front and rear featuring modern
