It’s hard to imagine that some small business called Swallow Sidecar Company, which was established back in 1922 in the small town of Blackpool, England, producing sidecars for motorcycles, would eventually become one of the most prestigious automotive brands!
And a significant part of this achievement is attributed to the introduction of what was initially considered as the sole sedan of the company, the Jaguar XJ, in 1968, the car itself was intended to replace all other sedans of the marque. The first-gen XJ was truly an innovative car for its time. And today we’ll talk about the last true Jaguar XJ!
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The V12 was not available from the German competition on the launch of the XJ40 in 1985. All ready a V12 engine was seen as an anachronism. Heavy, complex and not really fuel efficient. Jaguar was very realistic and smart actually. It was only when in 1988 BMW revealed the 750, and it didn’t only surprise Jaguar, who thought this engine was out of fashion, Mercedes had the exact same idea as Jaguar. BMW had to do it to show off to Jaguar and especially Mercedes. The W126 was in production at least two if not three extra years for Mercedes to develop the V12 for the W140 600 that came in 1991. That was when Jaguar really understood that they needed to get the V12 into the XJ40.
This could have been a better tribute to a great tradition without the terrible AI voiceover. Get a good British accent on board and this film will shine!