Jaguar XJR: Spotted

The one thing missing from a real driver's Jag found in a 20 year-old XJ

There's just no telling some people, is there? Much though we bleat on about how good some manuals are, from hot hatches to sports cars, the apparently inexorable rise of automatics continues in many a performance model. Shame.

Et voila!

Take the Porsche Cayman. Select 'high to low' in the PH Classifieds and you'll go through 28 PDK cars before coming across a manual. 28! Of the 88 current Caymans for sale on PH, there are just 16 manuals on offer. And this in a two-door sports car with one of the best manual gearboxes you can find. Doesn't look good for the future of three pedals and a stick, does it?

But a range of automatic Jaguars is more agreeable given they're luxurious saloons and GTs. Perhaps the F-Type experience could be improved with a manual but the ZF eight-speed auto is pretty damn good. And yet there's something oddly appealing about this manual XJR.

That's right, a manual XJR. Only offered up until the X300 six-cylinder version, any XJR with three pedals is unsurprisingly a very rare beast. The advert states only 120 RHD cars were ever produced with only around 40 remaining. HowManyLeft shows two 'Jaguarsport XJR-4.0' cars in the UK, compared with 34 autos.

And a good colour combo too

Lord knows what it's actually like to drive. Google 'Jaguar XJR manual' and it suggests you search for XKR manual instead. But regardless, who wouldn't fancy changing their own gears in an XJR? Whether anyone would want to enough to actually buy it is another question...

As the less conventionally desirable XJR, the manual should be cheaper than the auto. But given this car's relatively low mileage (69,000) it's hard to find a directly comparable J-gate car. This auto is £1,500 less, an X308 can be had for under £3K and, if you're feeling especially brave, this X350 is less than the X300 manual too.

So instead consider it as an E34 M5 alternative. Both 90s straight-six manual sports saloons after all. And when this 116,000-mile M5 is £9K the XJR looks much better value at £5,550. What else can you compare it to? The big Merc and Audi alternatives will be auto only unless you venture further afield or otherwise it will be smaller saloons.

Some will of course say that a big Jag four-door should always be an auto. They might be correct. But there's undeniable curio and enthusiast appeal to this XJR, particularly with a standard LSD too. Chris has just shown us all how to powerslide, so how about hooning around an airfield in this old Jag?

JAGUAR XJR
Engine: 3,980cc straight-six, supercharged
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive, limited-slip differential
Power (hp): 322@5,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 378@3,050rpm
MPG: 21
CO2: NA
First registered: 1995
Recorded mileage: 69,000
Price new: £45,450
Yours for: £5,550