1995 Jaguar XJR - in black

Damn, what a nice car. I saw an all black X308 today, and it made me want one.

I was wondering if you could shed some light onto why some cars have the hood ornament and some don't.
 
The leaper (the leaping jaguar hood ornament) wasn't factory equipment on sedans from 68-87 because of safety regs that outlawed most hood ornaments, though dealers put on ones from older cars (usually hood ornaments off the Jaguar Mark X), despite the fact that there was no factory spec for location or provision for it. Coupes never had a leaper from the factory. The X300s and X308s all have a breakaway leaper, but it's only held on by your typical double-sided foam body tape, so the owners can remove them (at least when the car is new). I don't like them on the Series III, personally; the car's curves aren't really designed with the leaper in mind, and the available leapers don't really fit well with the rest of the car. The next time mine goes into the shop for any respray work, I'm going to have its leaper removed and the holes filled in.

Coupes and convertibles are supposed to either have the growler (the snarling jaguar face), the V12 badge, both, or nothing. 68-87 XJ6's also had the growler badge (which is why the leaper is kind of overkill on those cars.) The XJ40 had some with the growler, some with the leaper. I don't remember the logic or the year break point (because they actually had a mix for a while). Anyway, after the X300, all the sedans went back to having the leaper. Both the S-Type and X-Type have one. The XF doesn't come with one, but I haven't heard any reason other than "since it's derived from the XK, it'd look silly with one." That said, it is an optional extra available on the order sheet and when installed it really does look terrible. (Part C2Z1126, MSRP $229) Behold:

jaguarshot.jpg




Bottom line - traditionally, the sedans have a leaper (though it went on hiatus for a while due to Euro passenger safety regulations and is on hiatus again). The sports cars don't, because usually it'd look silly on them. They have always been available as spare or optional parts, though.

Does that help?
 
Last edited:
Thanks, that helps. I agree with you, it looks stupid on the XF.

So, the last I-6 or V-12 you can get is the X300/5, which are at the same time the first ones with the current headlight look.

I was looking at some used Mark 2 X3** models, and noticed that the presence of the leapers seems to be pretty random. Seeing as how they were all attached with tape, that would mean that either the owner has them somewhere, or they got stolen I assume.

The prices are amazing.... X308s with the baby 3.2V8, less than 100000km (60k miles), one owner, all services done, and they'll run around ?10k.

I don't actually need a car, but this is making me want one.
 
The last I6 sedan was the 1997 X300, the last V12 sedan was the 1996 X305 (my father has one of these), yes.

To add to the reasons the leapers disappear, in the best Jaguar tradition the leaper will occasionally fall off the X300/308s when the tape disintegrates. :D Also, some countries' dealership organizations/distributors will order their "stock" cars in a different spec; for example, we haven't had a manual Jaguar in the US (except for the X-Type) since the 1970s because Jaguar Cars North America thinks we don't want them.

Jaguar resale values drop like a stone thrown off a cliff.... a stone with giant rocket boosters strapped to it and a miniature black hole at the bottom of the cliff. Pre-X-Type, at least our resale values didn't have rocket boosters attached.... On the other hand, that's what makes them superb values when used. For the price of an econobox, you can have a large sport/luxury sedan. :D $10K USD (what I paid for my car) would get me a stripper version of the Versa, the cheapest car in America or... my XJR. (Like that was a really hard decision...) $800 USD (which is what I paid for my Series III) wouldn't get me anything I'd want to be seen in. :p Fantastic cars, fantastic values when used, but to be honest they're not for the average person and were never meant to be. If you want one and can afford it, give it a try. You may like it; careful - the big cats can be addictive. :D
 
Last edited:
Your XJ6 was $800? Was it a shell? :lol: That's only $100 more than the '86 Celica I used to have, nice job.

And just to stay on topic, I'll say again: Damn your XJR is gorgeous. If I ever escape college I'll probably look for one.
 
tigger said:
Your XJ6 was $800? Was it a shell? :lol: That's only $100 more than the '86 Celica I used to have, nice job.

And just to stay on topic, I'll say again: Damn your XJR is gorgeous. If I ever escape college I'll probably look for one.
Click to expand...

Nope, it was a running car. This is what it looked like the day I bought it:

93_4.jpg


ed_4.jpg


e2_4.jpg



eBay is a wonderful thing. Especially when the idiot selling the car for the auction house can't spell "Jaguar" properly and therefore it gets overlooked in everyone's searches.
 
and im stuck with citroen visa gti with 800usd.. what a nice place to live...
 
Spectre said:
eBay is a wonderful thing. Especially when the idiot selling the car for the auction house can't spell "Jaguar" properly and therefore it gets overlooked in everyone's searches.
Click to expand...

Wow... Is that guy kicking himself now for letting go of a running piece of style for 800 bucks? :lol:


Great collection of Jags you have there, mate.
 
Running? Not packed with cancer? Looking good? I hate you man :lol:.

How long do those Jag inline 6s last?
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Wow... Is that guy kicking himself now for letting go of a running piece of style for 800 bucks? :lol:


Great collection of Jags you have there, mate.
Click to expand...

Probably, but it was more like he didn't really care. See, the car was donated, by the original owner, to a children's charity to be auctioned off. The people running the charity auction had no idea what they had and put it on eBay. I spoke with them later and they were ecstatic to get as much as they did for "such an old car".

tigger said:
Running? Not packed with cancer? Looking good? I hate you man :lol:.

How long do those Jag inline 6s last?
Click to expand...

Yup, running, no cancer.

The XK-series six in my Series III has an indefinite lifespan. The only catch is that due to a supplier screw up you had to change the headgasket out at around 100-120K miles. After that unless you have some random failure (and I do mean random - the usual things that happen in any production engine), you're good to go indefinitely. I've seen them get to 400,000 or more. I've taken the heads off ones that had gone 250K and I could *still* see the factory crosshatching in the cylinder bores.

The AJ16 in my XJR is just about as good. It doesn't have the headgasket issue, but it does need a rering/refresh at about 300K as it will be losing compression at that point.

Say what you will about Jaguar, but their inline sixes were great engines. Now, what was attached to the engine could be another story...
 
Last edited:
I notice you only have I-6s... are the V8s no good? Or is the X308 just too new for you to want to invest in.
 
Oh, I had a V8 XKR. The early V8s (97-00) had teething troubles, but eventually worked out to be decent engines (despite a lingering timing chain issue until 03 - retrofitting the fix is relatively inexpensive). The issue with the V8s is that you can't really modify or abuse them like the older engines; they're just not as strong as the sixes or even the old V12. Another issue is that it's a V8 and therefore is a little bit of a character violation for Jaguar, IMHO. I also don't like the sound of the V8 as much as I like the roar of the big sixes. :D Finally, I dislike the fact that Jaguar decided to remove the auxiliary status gauges from the instrument panel when they redesigned the X300 into the X308. Yes, the dash looks better, but.... Anyway, it's personal preference rather than any criticism of the technology in the X308s.

The bottom line is that the X308 is a fine car, I just happen to like the older ones better. Though if I ever come across a cheap XK8 with a blown engine, I'll buy it... and drop in a 6L V12. It does fit. :D
 
Damn...farewell, Mr. Feline.
 
HEIL XJR. no wait that's not right....
 
I like the leaping cat on the new Jaguar XF.
It looks terrible in that picture but I have seen an XF IRL and it looks a-ok in my opinion.
 
Spectre said:
He came over and visited from the UK this year. The modified one was destroyed by someone else's stupidity back in 2009. Hence the title of this thread including the word "replacement." The current one, listed in this thread, is stock save for some cosmetics (X308 lights, couple of other small tweaks) and some swapped out electronics, as I explained earlier.

And yes, he has seen the XJR, the XJ6, the two Honda motorcycles and the Crown Victoria. In fact, I lent him the CVPI for a few days.
Click to expand...

I call shenanigans on your story about the XJR you supposedly "checkbooked" from California. I do not believe your first XJR (that you claim was wrecked in 2009) had 450RWHP. I also do not believe your wild story about how it got destroyed and caught on fire. Furthermore I doubt that car even left the state of California....did you even drive it?

What's strange to me, is that you have tons of pics on a CVPI that you bought, but no evidence you had a 450HP Jaguar XJR (it's mods, anything) other than a handful of pictures you posted of the car in front of someone's house. You claim to have purchased the car in 2007 and it allegedly got wrecked in a wild crash and caught on fire in 2009. Wouldn't you have some pictures (details) of this fine car supposedly owning it more than a year?

Seems kind of strange.
 
alansmithee said:
I call shenanigans on your story about the XJR you supposedly "checkbooked" from California. I do not believe your first XJR (that you claim was wrecked in 2009) had 450RWHP. I also do not believe your wild story about how it got destroyed and caught on fire. Furthermore I doubt that car even left the state of California....did you even drive it?

What's strange to me, is that you have tons of pics on a CVPI that you bought, but no evidence you had a 450HP Jaguar XJR (it's mods, anything) other than a handful of pictures you posted of the car in front of someone's house. You claim to have purchased the car in 2007 and it allegedly got wrecked in a wild crash and caught on fire in 2009. Wouldn't you have some pictures (details) of this fine car supposedly owning it more than a year?

Seems kind of strange.
Click to expand...

You may think what you like of it, lord knows others have. However, as my friends and some members of this board have seen first hand, my life is full of wild and strange coincidences that nobody believes until they've been there with me.

I didn't post many pictures of the X100... or my Jeep... or of that first Pathfinder I got either. Just because I didn't post many pictures doesn't mean I didn't own them or do anything with them.

The fact remains that both the X100 and the first X300 XJR were seen in person by other members of this forum. I need not prove anything to someone who registered today merely to sling accusations - or, really, anyone else.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top