1991 Jaguar XJS V12 Le Mans - Manual Gearbox

Our rare 1991 XJS V12 Le Mans is reluctantly for sale.

We've owned this car (Jeffrey) since August 2011 and have thoroughly enjoyed our time with it, but due to loss of storage and the recent arrival of an Aston Martin, we feel it's best to pass-on our custodianship. In 2021 over £10k was spend on recommissioning and repair at a well-regarded specialist.

Mechanical:
The engine is smooth, powerful and unstressed. It has been tuned by AJ6 Engineering and has their larger throttles, enhanced ECU, high torque manifolds, TT extractor exhaust pipe and supplementary intakes fitted. A new hand-made aluminium radiator from Radtec was fitted in 2021, along with new thermostats and a complete set of new coolant hoses. The fuel rail was also rebuilt with new seals and fuel hose, whilst the injector loom was inspected and re-wrapped. A new NGK front crank sensor was fitted in 2022 as well as new leads and coils in the last month. The mileage is around 125k, though the speedo reads 35k due to a documented speedo change at 89, 999 miles.

The car was converted to a manual gearbox by ex-Lister mechanic Peter Godwin under the previous owner's tenure. I had a 3. 54 differential fitted from a 3. 6 with further improves acceleration. It still retains all the XJS GT credentials, but offers a lot more performance than standard models, when required.

Brakes and Suspension:
The car had new front discs, pads and braided hoses fitted as part of the recommissioning, along with new rear pads, brake lines and handbrake callipers. Also, new Eibach springs were fitted and the car sits on Gaz Gold adjustable dampers. These are set quite firm, but can been softened to personal preference. The front 'cradle' had new mounts and the rear cage has Rob Beere Racing mounts. The rear discs were changed when as part of the diff fitment around 2k miles ago. The car also received new front ball joints for the last MOT.

Bodywork:
The car had a bare-metal respray around eight years ago, with new outer sills, rear lower quarters and complete new rear wings being fitted amongst other repairs. I have a photo album of this work, which will go with the car. During the recommissioning, it was noticed that there was some rust in the front cradle mounts, so this was removed, cleaned and painted whilst the chassis was repaired. The body panels and box sections were all drilled and filled with Waxoyl, before being plugged. Additionally, the entire underside was then cleaned and Waxoyl-ed. The paintwork is still good having had a 3-stage polish as part of the re-commissioning, though not perfect, and it does have a couple of blemishes.

Electrics
Everything works as it should and the car has a rare, factory-fitted sunroof. We also had fitted, a Fenair R134a air conditioning kit which included a new compressor, hoses, receiver and condenser, so it now blows icy cold air. There are no warning lights on the dash binnacle.

Interior
A new headlining was fitted as part of the recommissioning work and really makes a difference to the ambience of the interior. A new set of contrasting green carpets were fitted last year as part of an interior refresh which included new, modern sound deadening. The driver’s seat requires a repair on the bolster as it is quite worn. I did have this booked-in a local upholstery specialist, but never managed to get to the front of the queue!

Overall
The car has been well looked-after by its previous owners and has a mix of main dealer and specialist service history. There are receipts for over £35, 000 of maintenance, repair and upgrade work, not including the service history stamps. It’s been a wonderful car to own, with its V12 and manual gearbox and will be sorely missed. We’ve got many photos of the earlier bodywork restoration and 2021 recommissioning work, along with all the receipts and book packs etc.

If I were keeping it......
I would probably replace the AJ6 Engineering TT extractor exhaust section with an X-pipe to tune the sound a little. I would also replace the Gaz shocks with a set of Bilstein as I’ve never quite gelled with the settings and maybe change the tyres (they’re a matching set of Falkens, that have done few miles, but have been on the car for around seven years).