HISTORY
The Daimler Majestic was a rare beast in its own right – an Insignia model even more so. We revisit a one-off XJ40
TOWARDS THE end of the model’slife, Jaguar threw in every ingredient at its disposal to improve the XJ40 recipe.
One such variant was the Majestic – arare long-wheelbase model produced in 1993 and 1994 only, of which a total of 270 were supposedly built, depending on which source you choose to believe. Of those, 71 are known to be right-hand-drive.
The Majestic models aren’t to be confused with standard LWB cars such as the majority of XJ12s and many XJ40 Daimlers. Instead, they were bespoke, hand-finished cars that were taken off the line as short-wheelbase bodies and stretched by Project Aerospace in Coventry before being shipped back to Browns Lane, where they were hand-finished by Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) department, which was busying itself with as many projects as it could get its hands on following the demise of the Daimler DS420 Limousine in 1992.
For the US market only, a SWB Majestic existed as well, based on the Jaguar Vanden Plas trim line (essentially identical to a Daimler). A Majestic can be identified by the fourth letter of its VIN, which should be an ‘M’, regardless of model – but it’s the LWB models that are the most interesting and unusual as the SWB models were really just prettied-up factory cars.
They sit on a wheelbase five inches longer than a standard XJ40, with most of the visible length in the cars’ doors. The roofline was also two inches higher, requiring some particularly bespoke coachwork around the back end of the roof. It’s rumoured that the Majestic project was part of SVO’s determination to stay alive – knowing the XJ40 was on the way out, the team were essentially developing ideas that might also work on the future X300 model that shared much of the same architecture in a hope they’d avoid falling foul of imminent cutbacks.
The majority of Majestic models sold in the UK were bought by captains of industry or dignitaries (not to mention Jaguar’s own company car fleet) and there was once a green example owned by the Royal Household.
This one, though, is something even more special. It’s a Majestic Insignia, and while there’s no definitive note of how many Majestics were also Insignia models, it’s fair to say that only one other is known of in the UK, and it’s a standard colour.
The Insignia programme was developed in 1992, immediately after DS420 production ceased. It was, in essence, a bespoke service for the XJ6, XJ12 and XJS, where prospective owners could specify special paint, trim, wood and wheels at additional cost in any given com
