HISTORY JAGUAR XJ SERIES III
The Series III XJ is Jaguar’s longest-lived saloon model, and with thirteen years’ largely unchanged production, only the pre-facelift XJ-S coupe can beat its production run at all. In that time it’s been driven by everyone from spivs and pub landlords to royalty. Almost as powerful a symbol of the British establishment as the Rover P5B and the Daimler DS420, in the years that have passed since it has become the archetypal old Jag for a generation.
Not bad for a car that wasn’t really meant to happen. Jaguar had initially intended for the project that became the XJ40 to replace the Series II XJ of 1973 directly, possibly even as early as 1979. That car had been an update of the original 1968 XJ series, a car which took Jaguar’s eclectic 1960s saloon car range and rationalised it into a single model family. The Series II built upon the successes of the Series I with new switchgear, raised bumpers to appease the American market and a new longer wheelbase for increased interior space. But as time passed on
