RE: Jaguar XJ-S V12 | The Brave Pill

[Helicopter123]

Just look at that picture with the boot open, and then think about how one might go about home tinkering.

Always, always wanted one but the bork factor is surely off the scale...

[biggbn]

Four reasons not to love it. The wheels. Horrible. I would love an xjs, but perversely it would be a 3.6 or 4.0 with the manual box

[Agent57]

Prices seem to be going up recently.

I adore the last of the line models.

[Wayne95]

Buy it, pull out the engine and put in an electric motor.

Keeps the looks, fine waft, 70's cool with no petrol costs and much added reliability!

If there was ever a classic suited to electric conversion this must be it. Not too heavy once the engines out, plenty of space in the engine bay for the motor and batteries, small front area with a slippery shape to keep the range up.

[olliete]

I have a degree of admiration for anyone that drives one of these

Fast? Erm no
Great handling? Again... Nein
Reliable? Well, the motor is pretty solid but the rest of it is less so

But so cool, my family friend had the v12 and it would do 80mph in second

[Touring442]

It'll be 30 years in October since I bought my first, a 1978 Automatic in Olive green on an S plate. I was 20 and had no fking idea. I bought it from an evening auction for £900 with rusty wings and rear arches, and spent a grand on new wings and other bodywork bits just for the stty GM400 box to fail. Then it was rear axle out, rebuild the handbrake, replace the diff seals, new radius arms etc. It had done a genuine 56'000 miles and it did go well. I flogged it just as the stem seals were flagging.

I had another in 1993 or so, a red 1976 manual. That one was very low mileage, Ziebarted and had only seen five British winters so it was very good. I waxoyled it again but moved it on after a few weeks.

Lovely cars but it has to be an original 75-90 Coupe with the big Cibie lights and without some of the comedy pub landlord mods (Yank headlights, leapers, wire wheels etc). Jaguar build quality was obscene it was so bad. They were just assembled from cheap junk and the rust protection a joke - Allegros were far more robust. I had a 928S around the same time and it was like night and day.

[300bhp/ton]

Helicopter123 said:

Just look at that picture with the boot open, and then think about how one might go about home tinkering.

Always, always wanted one but the bork factor is surely off the scale...

Curious but why do you think this? Probably the hardest bit to work on at home is the inboard rear discs. Everything is still pretty simple on them and parts when I had mine were readily available.

[300bhp/ton]

Wayne95 said:

Buy it, pull out the engine and put in an electric motor.

Keeps the looks, fine waft, 70's cool with no petrol costs and much added reliability!

If there was ever a classic suited to electric conversion this must be it. Not too heavy once the engines out, plenty of space in the engine bay for the motor and batteries, small front area with a slippery shape to keep the range up.

Just no.

And the V12 engine has never really been unreliable.

[FlukePlay]

Agent57 said:

Prices seem to be going up recently.

I adore the last of the line models.

I agree, I have always preferred the Celebration model from 94-96 and until recently they were an absolute bargain.

[Water Fairy]

Always liked the stylng of these but having valeted/detailed them I can vouch for the build quality, or lack of it.

[MCBrowncoat]

Touring442 said:

It'll be 30 years in October since I bought my first, a 1978 Automatic in Olive green on an S plate. I was 20 and had no fking idea. I bought it from an evening auction for £900 with rusty wings and rear arches, and spent a grand on new wings and other bodywork bits just for the stty GM400 box to fail. Then it was rear axle out, rebuild the handbrake, replace the diff seals, new radius arms etc. It had done a genuine 56'000 miles and it did go well. I flogged it just as the stem seals were flagging.

I had another in 1993 or so, a red 1976 manual. That one was very low mileage, Ziebarted and had only seen five British winters so it was very good. I waxoyled it again but moved it on after a few weeks.

Lovely cars but it has to be an original 75-90 Coupe with the big Cibie lights and without some of the comedy pub landlord mods (Yank headlights, leapers, wire wheels etc). Jaguar build quality was obscene it was so bad. They were just assembled from cheap junk and the rust protection a joke - Allegros were far more robust. I had a 928S around the same time and it was like night and day.

But you bought a second? There must be a reason? "Lovely cars" doesn't really explain it?

[Touring442]

Have a guess?You have to ask? Really? OMG?

[m_cozzy]

Utter junk. Had one in the mid 90's as a youngster. It was a poor example to be fair and cost me a bloody fortune. It litterrally rusted away in front of my eyes. Spent a weekend changing the sparkplugs, or was it the manifold gaskets, I can't recall. Never again.

[Touring442]

As fondly as I remember mine (and the dramas), it was only twelve years old at the time. Now even an Egan Miracle version is 30-35 years old.

An old XJS fills me with dread and they're not easy to push. Part of the appeal then was that they were fast and bloody cheap.

I wouldn't do it again.

[jackpe]

Since when are these things worth £10k
And more?? World has gone mad. The role
End of the classic car market is finally
Cooling and dropping but the bottom end has not caught up yet

[anonymous-user]

jackpe said:

Since when are these things worth £10k

In your view what classic currently valued at 10 grand is worth it then?

[Zumbruk]

One look under the bonnet was enough to put me off buying one of these.

[Triumph Man]

Wayne95 said:

Buy it, pull out the engine and put in an electric motor.

Keeps the looks, fine waft, 70's cool with no petrol costs and much added reliability!

If there was ever a classic suited to electric conversion this must be it. Not too heavy once the engines out, plenty of space in the engine bay for the motor and batteries, small front area with a slippery shape to keep the range up.

Go and wash your mouth out!

[anonymous-user]

Mechanically the V12 is very straightforward there is just a lot of it and access is a pain, however the ignition and injection systems for 12 cylinders running up to 6500 RPM were pushing the limit of technology at the time, and even at the end of the 90s it took a race spec Zytek system to run sequential injection and full ignition control from a single ECU.

Waste heat output was also enormous in a cramped engine bay with a cooling system that was marginal even from new; everything under the bonnet gets a fair roasting, causing issues with brittle wiring, bursting hoses, and dead electronics.

A combination of variable assembly quality, variable component quality, and owners & garages unused to the maintenance requirements of anything more complex than a Rover V8 inevitably lead to problems.

This is an interesting appraisal of the car, and highlights just how far off the mark much of the build and detailing were even by late 80s standards

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2016/01/vellum-v...

[J4CKO]

300bhp/ton said:

Wayne95 said:

Buy it, pull out the engine and put in an electric motor.

Keeps the looks, fine waft, 70's cool with no petrol costs and much added reliability!

If there was ever a classic suited to electric conversion this must be it. Not too heavy once the engines out, plenty of space in the engine bay for the motor and batteries, small front area with a slippery shape to keep the range up.

Just no.

And the V12 engine has never really been unreliable.

The engine is ok, its all the gubbins around it, all those pipes and god know what, it gets very hot under there and everything tended to get old and brittle, if the cooling system wasnt tip top, and even if it was things could get a bit toasty on a warm day and they ended up not running right, the injected ones were a bit more predictable and the heat soak didnt seem to be as much of a problem. Drove my FIL's V12 E Type and that used to try and cook your feel, too much engine in an E Type.

As a kid the XJ-S was new out and amazingly exotic in late seventies Britain, E-Types were just old and cheap then, the XJ-S was where it was at, I had a metallic red Corgi one. I had a sit in one, my dad had a mate who was a car dealer and I was in my element, a few weeks later the showroom burnt down, with my XJ-S still in there. A Neighbour got a new one in 1989, A V12, had a go in that an it felt so amazing, the effortless pull in the days when 0-60 for most cars was 13 seconds or more.


I remember at the dealers I worked at, one was in, was an early one and I was despatched to put some fuel in it, stuck a few quid in (boss was dead tight) in I think it was as it was on fumes, it got left running for a while over a couple of days and was moved around, didnt actually go anywhere and ran out f fuel had a couple through and they tended to smell a bit mouldy and damp, that was my abiding memory, probably rotten with wet carpets. I much preferred the BMW 635i we had in.





Now, nice old thing but not a lot of want considering how much I loved them as a kid.