► Jaguar XJ6 stands at #10
► The ride of your life
► ‘A bygone bargain’
So you think you know about ride comfort? You’ve relaxed in the back of an S-class on that business trip to the Fatherland, stormed down a Welsh mountain trail on your fancy full-suspended 29er mountain bike, and you once bedded the principal’s, ahem, ample niece after a 10-pint pub crawl back in college. But you’ve never driven an original XJ? Consider a key part of your automotive schooling absent.
Here’s the Jag the current crop of cats desperately wants to emulate. Those tapering flanks, impossibly low roofline and gorgeously slim pillars look great today; half a century ago this was supercar style for the fortunate family man. And it was even better to drive. Most of the oily bits we’d seen before: the ohc XK engine, the independent rear suspension and front subframe.
But get past steering that’s lighter than a helium filled penny floater, and it all worked magnificently, ’71’s V12-powered XJ12 only adding to the refinement. Drive before you die? Put one on your drive, more like.
The S1 XJ is one of our greatest cars, and right now it’s a bygone bargain.
The specs
Produced: 1968-1997
Price at launch: £2253
Value now: £3000-£12,000
Engine: 4235cc 4-cyl, 245bhp, 280lb ft
Performance: 8.8sec 0-60mph, 124mph