Scroll back to 1978 and Pininfarina caused a furore with its Jaguar XJ Spider. No gush was too purple as the world’s motoring media begged British Leyland to adopt it as a production model. It didn’t, of course, but this one-off roadster remains a classic of its kind
Even though Bob Tullius’ Group 44 team won the 1978 Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am Series with a largely standard XJ-S, Jaguar North America withdrew its sponsorship, leaving the Virginia-based outfit to concentrate on its Triumph TR8 campaign instead.
By the early Nineties, and with no replacement in sight, Jaguar gave the now-aging XJ-S a major facelift, resulting in the unhyphenated model from 1991. For the 30th anniversary of the update, we explain why the changes helped to keep the XJS relevant for the new decade.
We drive a rare example of the Jaguar XJ-S based-Monaco, one of only 12 that were converted between the early Nineties and 2001 by PBB Design, that features characterchanging glass-fibre body panels
As our feature on shows, the XJ-S could be turned into more of a sports car, although it wasn’t a natural racing car due to its size and weight. That didn’t stop Bob Tullius and his Group 44 team from campaigning the car in the late Seventies, with considerable success.
The Lister Le Mans is a full-bore evolution of the suave Jaguar XJ-S. But instead of madness on wheels, Ben Barry discovers a bargain alternative to the Ferrari F40
