Forty-tude

THERE’S AN old saying that goes, “There’s nothing faster than a hire car,” but there is one thing that just edges ahead: a press car. Loaned out for a week-at-a-time for road testing, they’re driven hard, subjected to the rigours of full-bore performance testing and, all too often, sheer neglect.

These days, things are properly regulated, with borrowers held accountable for damage and more professional publishers and journalists (JW included) will have a proper policy of returning the cars clean and presentable.

Back in the day, though, things were often more relaxed. Many’s the retired press fleet manager who has a stock of anecdotes about the state of the cars handed back. One memorably included a small front-driven hatchback that went out to a well-known magazine and needed a set of brakes and four tyres after just a week.

All of which makes it surprising that many press cars from the Eighties survive to old age at all, but here’s one that didn’t just survive, it went on to live a life of adventure beyond its time on the press fleet and then survive another three decades.

HISTORY XJ40

At first sight, David Marks’ XJ40 attracts your attention simply because you don’t see many XJ40s this tidy, even today as the model is