Description
This LHD auto 1992 Jaguar XJR-S V12 6. 0-litre was delivered new to Spain in 1992 and is one of the last of just 431 LHD 6. 0 XJR-S models ever made.
This gorgeous Jaguar XJR-S has been stored away for over 10 years and was recently fully recommissioned and has been used solely for a couple of one-day classic car tours. The car is completely original and min superb condition. It is clean, ITV tested, insured and ready to go. When the Jaguar XJR-S was launched in August 1988, Jaguar was riding the crest of a wave, having just claimed its 6th Le Mans victory and, in 1987, won the World Sportscar Championship.
It was a genuinely bespoke model produced by Jaguar Sport - a high-performance wing jointly owned by Jaguar and the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Group. Initially powered by a 5. 3-litre V12, the engine was upgraded in 1989 to a bespoke 6. 0-litre unit with Zytek fuel injection. It was good for 334 bhp and 160 mph.
Boasting a new forged steel crankshaft, forged alloy pistons, modified air intake and a dual exhaust system, the engine was unique to the XJR-S and was only phased out once Jaguar introduced its own 6. 0-litre V12.
The XJR-S proved to be an immediate winner with contemporary journalists. In a Motor Sport magazine group test, the Jaguar handed out a humiliating spanking to a Porsche 928 GT, a BMW 850i and a Ferrari Mondial T – no mean feat.
Motoring journalist Andrew Frankel recalled that test some years later: "Suddenly, almost 30 years on, we realised we were looking at the true successor to the E-type; a car capable of doing to the likes of the Mondial what the E had done to the 250 GT. [...] Yet, unlike in the Porsche 928 GT, there was no fuss, no drama, no deafening din of tyres on bitumen; there was just calm, relaxed and blindingly fast progress".
While the XJR-S may have looked pretty much like a standard Jaguar XJR coupé, virtually every mechanical part was unique. Each car left the factory as a hand-built unit from Jaguar Sport’s manufacturing facility at Bloxham, which had attained legendary status as the works unit that built the seminal XJ220.
