CLASSIC DRIVE
Although Jaguar had stopped offering the XJ-S with a manual gearbox in 1978, two were produced in the early Eighties which also had the Lucas P-Digital injection. We’ve tracked down what’s thought to be the sole survivor
AT FIRST glance, this early XJ-S looks to be like any other of the 15,525 pre-HEs that were produced between 1975 and 1981, with only its pristine condition and the fact it’s survived the ravages of time setting it apart. Look closer, though, and you’ll see something that shouldn’t be there: a gear lever for a manual gearbox When the XJ-S was first launched, as well as a three-speed automatic gearbox it also had the option of a four-speed manual transmission which was never popular with customers or critics. “One of the less endearing aspects of the XJ-S is the transmission,” said Motor magazine in its February 21, 1976 issue. “The change is stiff and notchy if you rush it so it pays to ease the lever around rather than snatch it. However you treat it, the change is far removed from the flickswitch shifts we have come to expect of the most ordinary family saloons.”
With the three-speed automatic also more suited to a V12-engined grand tourer, in late 1978 and after just 352 production examples with the manual box had been produced, the option was discontinued. Therefore, it makes this 1981 car – plus a second example that was apparently made at around the same time – something of an anomaly.
Since it was originally sold through Henlys of London, one of Jaguar’s oldest and most prestigious dealers, was it simply a special order for a favoured customer? According to former Jaguar test driver and XJ-S expert Ed Abbott, the right-hand-drive UK-specified car was built in the middle of a run of LHD export models meaning someone pulled strings to get it made.
Ed suggests the car might have been produced as a present for Ed Mundy, one of the V12’s original designers, who retired at around the same time as the car left the Browns Lane assembly line.
Another, perhaps more credible theory, is the car was used by Jaguar’s development team. When current owner William Ireland contacted Jaguar Heritage in the early 2000s, not only did he discover it was one of two factory-made manuals produced during 1981, but the car’s build sheet listed the car as having a five-speed transmission. Jaguar did develop such a box in the early Seventies but it never reached production; was the car used to further test this transmission before being converted to a four-speed to be sold through Henlys? An interesting and convincing suggestion but since the car was produced in early 1981, a few months before the HE model went on sale, its usefulness as a test car was therefore limited.
With Henlys entering liquidation in 2005 following several takeovers and mergers, its sales ledgers have long
