TWR Style Jag XJS in South Africa

[akku]

I saw this. I liked it. I thought you might also. Seen on the streets of Cape Town

[qwerty]

Is it just me or are XJS' becoming better and better looking as the years pass?

They still seem relatively cheap as well!

Tom

[calecosse]

Pretty epic!

[thechadzone]

I'd really like to see if it has six Weber IDF carbs on display? Amazing to see such a thing on the street.

[akku]

Oct 2, 2022 16:04:12 GMT thechadzone said:

I'd really like to see if it has six Weber IDF carbs on display? Amazing to see such a thing on the street.

Not sure if carbs or injection, but I saw many trumpets....

[ChasR]

Sept 30, 2022 20:00:26 GMT qwerty said:

Is it just me or are XJS' becoming better and better looking as the years pass?

They still seem relatively cheap as well!

Tom

They are.

However, as the boring person (albeit knowing an XJS specialist as well)

-Their build quality is shocking, even by standards of the day. It’s worth reading about the XJ and XJS development story on AROnline as to seeing why this was the case.
-Many parts are NLA, or are built to the wrong spec. Front and rear springs don’t match on height or relative spring rate for example.
-They hide rot like you wouldn’t believe. We saw a gorgeous 4.0 Cabrio at an auction sell for good money. A few of us wondered how it got an MOT, it was hanging that badly.
-They are a true juxtaposition of engineering. Some things need to work to keep them going well. The fuel cooler not working for example can cost 30BHP on a V12 and cause starting issues. A few jobs are a nightmare. Yet folks say modern cars are worse to work on…

They’re a car I’ve always wanted and you never know. But with crippling MPG, especially from the HE cars (Spending £300 a month on diesel is painful, meaning this car is out of the question as an M3 replacement), in addition to the issues cited above, as well as seeing folks become ruined from owning one haven’t helped. That said, that is causing thirsty cars to become cheaper in the auctions. A reasonably Bentley for £6k anyone? We were all stunned.
-As said, other thirsty cars are reasonably priced as well. Not an XJS, but the Bentley is one example. If the market wasn’t changing they’d be climbing in value. XJSs are no longer the cheap car they used to be.

It doesn’t mean I can’t dream mind you . That does look mighty fine too.

The original had some interesting quirks about it, in a typical TWR way .

[qwerty]

Oct 4, 2022 7:53:31 GMT ChasR said:

Sept 30, 2022 20:00:26 GMT qwerty said:

Is it just me or are XJS' becoming better and better looking as the years pass?

They still seem relatively cheap as well!

Tom

They are.

However, as the boring person (albeit knowing an XJS specialist as well)

-Their build quality is shocking, even by standards of the day. It’s worth reading about the XJ and XJS development story on AROnline as to seeing why this was the case.
-Many parts are NLA, or are built to the wrong spec. Front and rear springs don’t match on height or relative spring rate for example.
-They hide rot like you wouldn’t believe. We saw a gorgeous 4.0 Cabrio at an auction sell for good money. A few of us wondered how it got an MOT, it was hanging that badly.
-They are a true juxtaposition of engineering. Some things need to work to keep them going well. The fuel cooler not working for example can cost 30BHP on a V12 and cause starting issues. A few jobs are a nightmare. Yet folks say modern cars are worse to work on…

They’re a car I’ve always wanted and you never know. But with crippling MPG, especially from the HE cars (Spending £300 a month on diesel is painful, meaning this car is out of the question as an M3 replacement), in addition to the issues cited above, as well as seeing folks become ruined from owning one haven’t helped. That said, that is causing thirsty cars to become cheaper in the auctions. A reasonably Bentley for £6k anyone? We were all stunned.
-As said, other thirsty cars are reasonably priced as well. Not an XJS, but the Bentley is one example. If the market wasn’t changing they’d be climbing in value. XJSs are no longer the cheap car they used to be.

It doesn’t mean I can’t dream mind you . That does look mighty fine too.

The original had some interesting quirks about it, in a typical TWR way .

That's an interesting read, I have no indepth knowledge of them so it was informative.

Why do you think the aftermarket parts for them are so poor? I kinda thought they would demand a good quality aftermarket.

I too will probably never own one, but I still admire them, and fantasy build a 6 litre V12 Manual on ITBs 😂

[ChasR]

Oct 4, 2022 16:42:22 GMT qwerty said:

Oct 4, 2022 7:53:31 GMT ChasR said:

They are.

However, as the boring person (albeit knowing an XJS specialist as well)

-Their build quality is shocking, even by standards of the day. It’s worth reading about the XJ and XJS development story on AROnline as to seeing why this was the case.
-Many parts are NLA, or are built to the wrong spec. Front and rear springs don’t match on height or relative spring rate for example.
-They hide rot like you wouldn’t believe. We saw a gorgeous 4.0 Cabrio at an auction sell for good money. A few of us wondered how it got an MOT, it was hanging that badly.
-They are a true juxtaposition of engineering. Some things need to work to keep them going well. The fuel cooler not working for example can cost 30BHP on a V12 and cause starting issues. A few jobs are a nightmare. Yet folks say modern cars are worse to work on…

They’re a car I’ve always wanted and you never know. But with crippling MPG, especially from the HE cars (Spending £300 a month on diesel is painful, meaning this car is out of the question as an M3 replacement), in addition to the issues cited above, as well as seeing folks become ruined from owning one haven’t helped. That said, that is causing thirsty cars to become cheaper in the auctions. A reasonably Bentley for £6k anyone? We were all stunned.
-As said, other thirsty cars are reasonably priced as well. Not an XJS, but the Bentley is one example. If the market wasn’t changing they’d be climbing in value. XJSs are no longer the cheap car they used to be.

It doesn’t mean I can’t dream mind you . That does look mighty fine too.

The original had some interesting quirks about it, in a typical TWR way .

That's an interesting read, I have no indepth knowledge of them so it was informative.

Why do you think the aftermarket parts for them are so poor? I kinda thought they would demand a good quality aftermarket.

I too will probably never own one, but I still admire them, and fantasy build a 6 litre V12 Manual on ITBs 😂

"Slight hi-jack"

I won't say much as I'm aware of who comes onto this forum. All I'll say is I have a friend who has lived and breathed XJSs for years, from the racetrack to fixing several for a specialist and himself for customers for a very long time.

He still does it ; a friend of ours has 2 pre-HEs, and he will fix some for a certain outfit (I'll say a car retailer).

Examples?
-On a Pre-HE, the brake master cylinder was gone. NLA. We tried everywhere. In the end, we chanced a NOS seal kit and put that in. Yes, we could have maybe have looked into fitting a later master cylinder, but the later cars had a hydraulically assisted master cylinder, which could have created another smorgersbord of issues. Normally, none of us would take that chance on something as critical as brakes. But what can you do?
-He fitted a set of springs to another one, getting the springs from a known dealer. Back end went down. Got another set. Back end went down again! Got a front set, and it went up.
-On a XJ81, we struggled to get spark plugs over the weekend for a chap who needed the car running well ASAP. Mail order only. We chucked some in for a spare V12 he had lying around. It seems others struggled too before we saw it, as quite a few of the plugs were seized in so bad, that we were worried they'd snap in the head. We broke the porcelain on one of them getting it out despite keeping the wrench straight. They were in an appalling state, and unsurprisingly, the engine ran alot better!
-Header tanks on some V12s have been NLA, so we ended up adapting another Jag to make it fit.
-A friend of mine supplies parts to quite a few of the Jag specialists, so probably knows more than he should regarding their parts supply information.

Good quality parts did exist, but owners simply never wanted them or rather, they didn't want to stump up the premium for them. One retailer will hammer the friend I have on cost HARD, despite other brands charging more for the parts, and other customers of his (me being one) having very satisfied customers, with the prices he throws out initially. My friend isn't bad to do financially, but he's hardly rolling in cash and does put in some serious time.

This is something I've seen in the BL world for a very long time now to be fair. My Stag suffered from springs which were far too tall. I had a header tank which was semi-failing as well, in addition to exhaust hangers which were so hard, they couldn't be fitted onto the hangers. Viscous couplings have been a problem for a while in the Stag world too, but for £30, what do folks expect?

Working for an OEM, where I've seen high volume and low volume stuff, alot of the OEMs really don't care if they don't get low volume orders, so they price accordingly. It will take for example the same amount of time to get a machine into order to do 5000 camshafts as it will for 20. Same fo the tooling costs of the camshaft as one example.

As for the XJ article, here's a good read. It's surprising what was done. Again, I've heard stories since to support this from old boys who were once in the trade, as well as friends whose parents had the cars when new.

www.aronline.co.uk/cars/jaguar/xj6-xj12/the-cars-jaguar-xj6xj12/

[sonus]

twr-tribute.com/the-car

The guy building this is helping me build a fast road 2.8 Daimler V8 for my TVR Vixen