Description
This is an excellent and special example of an XJ40. It's the 3rd I've owned so I know these cars well. I'm selling only because a friend decided to sell his superb Daimler Super V8 and it's too good an example to pass up. My car was already in for a service when my friend gave me the news so it comes fully serviced (and prepped for an MOT) by the same Jaguar specialist who has serviced it for the last 38000 miles.
I'm the 3rd owner and have owned it almost 5 years. When I bought the car it had 39000 miles on the clock. The first owner was Sir Austin Pearce who was a Jaguar main board director, the Chairman of British Aerospace and the Chairman of Esso. Being part of Jaguar's Executive Fleet, the car never went via a dealer. Sir Austin retained the car after he retired, owning it for 10 years until 2004. The 2nd owner owned the car for 16 years, covering only 9000 miles.
I've used the car for long trips around the UK and overseas tours including the Netherlands, Spain, France (twice) and Belgium. It's a superb long-distance cruiser and returns 27mpg on the motorway with the air-conditioning on.
The MOT runs to 22nd October and has no advisories listed. Once a sale is agreed I'll put the car through an MOT so that it comes with 12 months.
Service history: Sir Austin used a Jaguar main dealer then a local garage, the second owner, an engineer, carried out his own maintenance and I've used S&P who are Jaguar specialists in Devon. I've had the car serviced every 12 months or 10000 miles depending on which has arrived sooner. There's a thick history file containing the service book, invoices, MOTs and tax discs.
Everything that usually needs doing on an XJ40 has been done during my ownership: all new air-conditioning components; re-secured rear bumpers; front and rear suspension rebuilt to factory standards and a new headlining (fitted by a Bentley/ Rolls trimmer). In addition, late last year I fitted a set of four new Michelin tyres.
This is a very late model XJ40 having been built on the new production line, installed in August ‘93, for the subsequent X300 model. As a result the build quality is superb even by the already high standard of later XJ40s.
The car is in excellent condition with just some wear on the driver's seat bolster. Everything works except the electric mirrors which have limited movement and the electric driver's headrest which no longer lowers. The passenger one is fine.
I had an Alpine bluetooth system fitted to allow streaming of music such as Spotify.
I have a Jaguar Daimler Heritage Certificate for the car, it's listed on the XJ40 Register and at the request of the Jaguar Enthusiast Club, the car had a two-page feature in the club's magazine. The car has also been in Classic Car Weekly.
My first XJ40 was a '92 3. 2 Sovereign, my 2nd a '93 Daimler Double-Six with the 6. 0 V12. This time I went for a 4. 0 as the 3. 2 is short of torque, whilst the V12 is more complex and struggles to reach 18mpg at a cruise. I did considerable miles in both and the reliability was so good (both being post-1992 facelift cars) I was confident enough to buy a 3rd XJ40 as a 50th birthday present.
The first photo was taken outside a hotel in Brussels in 2023 and the final one was taken in the Basque region of Spain in October 2024. Three months ago the car completed a tour of France including Nancy, Reims, Lille and Dunkirk.
The car can be viewed in Somerset or Hertfordshire.
