For fans of the E-type, the Jaguar XJ-S was seen as a soft sop to the grand touring market, a car that owed much to the saloon range and lacked the real sportiness that had traditionally come with the Jaguar brand. But the car attracted its own fans instead – first as the pre-HE inmanual and automatic form, with a dearth of chrome and a black dashboard where walnut might have been expected, and subsequently in relatively efficient HE form, with larger Series III style bumpers and timber trimmings. A model that had been met at first with mixed responses was now riding high, and the early 1980s were the XJ-S’s halcyon era.
The range became considerablyJaguar would build upon this even further with the introduction, at the same time, of a targa style cabriolet. The XJ-SC was only available at launch as a 3.6–which meant manual transmission would be mandatory until the launch of the 1985 XJ-SC V12, and the 1987 3.6 automatic. An open manual cruiser meant that the XJ-S could attract yet another new market, pulling back some of those who had defected to the Mercedes-Benz SL in the wake of E-type Series 3 production. The next obvious stage was a full convertible, which Jaguar was developing and had planned to launch in V12 form for 1988.
