Modern take

LOOKS CAN be deceiving. Just ask anyone who has ever mistaken a fake Rolex for a real one or a petrol station-bought sandwich as actual food. Then, there’s this PBB Design Monaco. The soft lines, Perspex headlight covers and wide wheelarches might make it seem a reasonably new car – something from the Nineties or early 2000s, maybe – but it’s actually based on a 36-year-old XJ-S. Which was always the point behind Paul Bailey’s modifications to bring Jaguar’s Seventies-designed Grand Tourer more up-to-date.

Between 1992 and the early 2000s, his Bristol-based company, PBB Design, offered a series of modifications for the XJ-S under the name Monaco, completely changing the car’s look and character. Built in tiny numbers, it was one of the better-designed, modified examples of Jaguar’s big GT that were prevalent at the time.

Following a career