MODEL PROFILE
Built in the late Eighties, this XJ-S, built as a prototype to test the XJ41 ‘F-Type’ running gear running gear hides a secret
LIKE JAMES Bond’s AstonMartin DB5, ahaunted castle or an advent calendar, this white XJ-S coupe has several hidden secrets.
Because other than its flared wheel arches and deeper front air dam, it might look largely standard but that’s just a ruse to disguise its true purpose.
Built in the early Nineties with a turbocharged version of Jaguar’s 4.0litreengine paired with all-wheel-drive, it wasadevelopment mule to test thedrivetrain of the XJ41project.
Although aprototype, the result is still aremarkably well-developed car that transforms the XJ-S intoagenuine performancemodel to rivalany of those at the time. But perhaps moreimportantly, it gives ahint of what the XJ41would have felt if it had reached production.
When Jaguar needed to secure funding from parent company BLin1980 to develop the XJ40, the management decided its chances would be improved if a sportscar was designed on the same chassis. Not only would it offer BL better value for money but such a car would replace the XJ-S which, five years into its production, still wasn’t popular.
After the company’s designershad been asked to sketch a potential sports car,it was Keith Helfet’s proposal that was eventually chosen by the company founder Sir William Lyons. Handsome and well-proportioned, its soft, gentle curves clearly harked back to those of Jaguar’s previous models.
“For me, the origami styling[better known as wedge] fashion from the mid-Seventies to the early Eighties was completely unappealing,” said Keith in the October 2018 issue of Jaguar World.“I don’t do squarelines; Idoflowing sculpture and that’s what Jaguarsare about.”
Following apresentation at London’s Grosvenor Hotel in mid 1980, BL released the required £80m the following February to kickstart both projects. The sports car (the coupe wascodenamed XJ41while the convertible wasXJ42) wasadded to Jaguar’s official product plan in 1982 with aproposedlaunchoffour yearslater.
Initially it was a traditional rear-wheel drive sports car powered by Jaguar’s AJ6 straight six engine but this would start to change in 1985 when the project wastaken over by Jaguar’s New Vehicle Concepts department. Not only did NVCdecide to redesign the car using CAD CAM (a first forJaguar) but it then added two turbos plus all-wheel-drive.
Keith tells me this waspartly down to corporateego.“The styling clinics told us the car wasthe best in class and NVCwantedits engineering and performancetobethe same.”
But he also says performancem
