Jaguar Sovereign: rust and rehabilitation.

[MRustbucket]

Change a starter motor on a V12 and you will soon hate it...

The unfurling noise the starter makes in the 'twelve is wonderfully sophisticated and evocative though. A world away from the clank my old thing makes.

[MRustbucket]

I used to think 300's were nicer than 40's - but now have the exact reverse opinion. The XJ40 is of its time but is very colour/spec dependent. It must be a Sovereign with fishbowls, dark colour, factory alloys. A black 86-90 Daimler looks magnificent and I do like the Jaguar Sport versions with the TWR bodykit - red is best.

I think they probably do look their best in the darker colours - though I like my Diamond blue and also like Sovereign gold - a really rich gold - on the early cars.

Black is strangely rare on the '40, though it does look great. I saw an absolute peach of a car - a 3.6 litre Daimler in black with dark oxblood leather and matching pin stripes many years ago. I think it is the single best looking '40 I have seen.

There are quite a few good colours though. I particularly like Moroccan red - so dark it looks almost brown in low light, yet shines in turn scarlet and purple in the sun. Marvellous. Kingfisher is another good colour. Is it blue, is it green? Who cares - it looks great. Westminster blue is another really successful colour on the '40. So dignified. And Rose bronze. A really peculiar colour that one, but I love it.

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Edited as picture not working

[HMC]

Moroccan red is lovely. Back when xj40s were a plenty I wanted either a “majestic” or a black one with cream leather. In about 2007 I nearly won an auction on what I think was an ex rt hon Alan Clark 1993 xj12 - I bottled lobbing in further bids as it was a non runner.

He was most definitely a JAAAAG man.

[Uncle Albert]

Cor! That's one sexy engine.

[MRustbucket]

I love this aspect of the XJ40 - the AJ6 is the last beautiful Jaguar engine - almost as good looking as the old XK, but not quite. Still, that's a high bar - the XK is a noble looking thing.

Jaguar really spoiled the look of the engine in the X300 - the cost cutting ran through the car (first felt in very late XJ40s - thinner carpet, cheaper leather etc.) - but it is really obvious under the bonnet. That said, the last XJ40s and the X300 were manufactured on a completely new production line, rather than the archaic setup cobbled together for the '40, which involved a lot of hand assembly. It really shows. The accuracy of pressings and assembly in the X300 (and last XJ40s) is starkly better - to the extent that whilst you can fit X300 doors to an XJ40 (with the right hinges) - you can't fit XJ40 doors to an X300 without it looking absolutely awful. The XJ40 doors are simply not accurate enough and the panel gaps are all over the place. A guy on XJ40.com discovered this when he was converting an X300 XJR6 to look like an XJ40. It was a deeply impressive job he did, too.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The AJ6 is an impressive engine full stop, better than the BMW and Merc sixes of the late eighties.

[NergleFuttocks]

There used to be a rose bronze 4.0 Sovereign near Tesco on the A140 outside Norwich (L610WDU - a few digits away from mine and another 12 (L644WDU) that lives nearby) that always looked glorious. Stopped to chat with the owner and he loved it. Right up until he ditched it when in failed to start one morning...

I adore the Sunburst Orange DD6 that surfaced recently back from HK (but on dodgy spokes). If I had to respray my Kingfisher (again) I would dechrome it and give the DD6 a non-identical twin.

Sorry, it’s quads every time for me.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Quads - base model. When buying a Jaguar, you need one with everything on it. House prices for firm up with a Fishtanked Sov on the manor.

[Hooli]

Quads still look a lot better than the fishtanks though.

From memory you got them on the sport model, which you could then spec up to an acceptable level.

[NergleFuttocks]

Quads standard on the 12 even though it was a Sovereign spec. I think the 3.2 and 4.0 S models wore quads too. Quads are lovely on a Daimler, and suit the Majestic better. Rob Jenner has a really weird spec cream insignia Majestic 3.2 with taxi spec and quads. Looks really gawky. Japan had a few lavender Majestics with fishbowls and a few with quads - the quads look terrible. There is a Signal red DD6 with fishbowls that I desperately want to change it quads.

It is true that the XJ40 is very colour sensitive.