Jaguars under the hammer

As we went to press, Silverstone Auctions had hammered away an interesting selection of Jaguars at the annual Race Retro show. Headline of the sale however, wasn’t a Jaguar but the incredible £596,250 paid for a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth – irrelevant perhaps to readers of JW but an illustration of a shift in tastes at the top end of the market to a new generation of ’80s and ’90s cars away from the likes of the Mk2.

Perhaps as a result of this, it was the standard, unmodified cars which performed best. An extensively uprated 1963 Mk2 with modern seats and other convenience features sold below its lower estimate at £43,250 despite the allure of an uprated 3.8-litre XK by Forward Engineering and a five-speed box. A second similarly modified Mk2 3.8 sold for £50,625 against an estimate of £45,000-£55,000, while the bargain of the day was the very original 2.4-litre Mk2 in manual form with a rot-free structure thanks to an early life in Australia which sold for just £18,000. A beautifully preserved Series 3 Daimler Sovereign meanwhile failed to sell on the day despite showing just 7700 miles, while a lovely UK-market right-hand drive XK150 uprated to S-specification sold for mid-estimate money at £46,125.

Curiosity of the show had to be the PBB Monaco, a wide body conversion of an XJ-S which sold for £24,750 against an £18,000- £24,000 estimate. It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea of course, with a one-owner, 2800-mile 1991 XJ-S ‘Le Mans’ special edition V12 coupe making a strong £43,250.