Life of luxurry
THE DESIGNER Coco Chanel believed, “Luxurymust be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.” If that’s right – and shewould have known – then theXJ12 is themost luxurious car Jaguar has ever produced. It’s not just the leather-lined interior that makes it so – although that helps – but the gloriousV12. Smooth and refined, yet also powerful, it transforms every generation ofXJ12 into a luxurious, quiet and stately limousine, fromthe original Series 1 of 1972 to the final generation two decades later.
If proof of the car’s luxury credentials were needed, HerMajestyQueen Elizabeth TheQueenMother owned an early example formore than three decades. So, what better car than hers, togetherwith the last XJ12 ever produced, to illustrate the model’s refined comfort?
Jaguar’s new 5.3-litre was first fitted to the E-type Series 3 in 1971 before finding its way into the car it was originally intended for, the XJ saloon, a year later. Although the car was designed to take the V12 from the start, it was still a difficult task to shoehorn the huge power plant and its many ancillaries under the bonnet.
The water/oil heat exchanger that was built into the front part of the E-type Series 3’s V12 sump could not be reused in the XJ because of its front cross member, so, instead, a conventional twin-tube oil cooler was mounted below the radiator. Due to the heat coming off the
