JAGUAR XJS (1975-1996)

Expectation is a funny old thing. Any car following in the footsteps of the iconic Jaguar E-Type was always going to have its work cut out convincing a public that had become used to a specific form from jaguar’s sports cars and when the XJ-S appeared in 1975, it had fatally erred. As Jaguar historian Philip Porter noted in his 1996 book Jaguar XK8: "No one could deny that the XJ-S was technically excellent, but it committed one cardinal sin, especially for a Jaguar. It lacked great beauty."

"The last E-types rolled off the production line in 1974 and after a brief hiatus the XJ-S appeared in 1975. The reception was a rather embarrassed silence. This was unprecedented for a Jaguar. I remember the day well, and I remember the great disappointment." Yet time has, if anything, been kind to the XJ-S. Where the E-Type now looks a bit of a museum piece, those bold sweeps, planes and arcs of the XJ-S that so alienated the motoring press have aged well.

It’s hard to overstate quite what a mess Jaguar, BLMC and the British economy were in at the start of the Seventies. The designer of the XJ-S, Malcolm Sayers, had died in 1970 and Sir William Lyons, the company’s charismatic chairman and proponent of the XJ-S programme, stepped down in March 1972. The Yom Kippur War erupted in October 1973 starting a spiral of events that led to an oil crisis. Hardly the perfect backdrop to be launching a 12-cylinder grand touring coupe.