Ever since announcing its range of evocative Mark 1 and 2 saloons, the need to go one better, to build the best sedan in the world, never eluded Jaguar’s dream team of designers and engineers.
Cars produced by Jaguar on shoestring budgets had dominated Le Mans for a decade, and their E Type immediately became the most admired sports car in the world. Next though was the task of building the best four-door sedan the world had ever seen.
The job began in the early 1960s at a cost of some £6 million and was completed during 1968 when Jaguar’s XJ6 overwhelmed everything at that year’s Earl’s Court Motor Show in London.
The XJ6 was an extraordinary car. The body was low and wide and owed nothing to the compact saloons that had carried Jaguar’s fortunes since the 1950s. Nowhere on the low, perfectly-proportioned shape did the word ‘Jaguar’
