TO SAY the XJ-S enjoyed a long life is no exaggeration: launched in 1975, it eventually bowed out 21 years later but even then elements of its structure lingered on under the Aston Martin DB7, with a few elements even making it into the first-generation XK8.
In that time though the car changed more dramatically than many realise, evolving from a thirsty V12 coupe to an elegant six-cylinder convertible. Indeed, the very early cars and the last-of-the-line models may look similar at a glance but close inspection reveals a surprisingly small number of components which are directly shared between a 1975 and 1996 example.
Students of Jaguar history will already be aware that the biggest step in the XJ-S’s evolution was the 1991 facelift, which although it was successful enough to give the car a whole new lease of life was in fact born out of something of a crisis.
The accepted version of events tells us that when Ford arrived at Browns lane the Dearborn management was so horrified at the state of the production lines that the ambitious new XJ41/42 ‘F-Type’ project with its twin-turbo 4x4 drivetrain was immediately canned in favour of diverting the funds into an update of the manufacturing facilities.
Instead of the all-new sports car, an update of the XJ-S was sanctioned, the idea being that this would hold the
