Background
The ‘Fireball’ era was something of a Golden Age for Jaguar and Daimler saloons: the achingly gorgeous ‘eXperimental Jaguar’ range was finally starting to benefit from a few years of production line expertise, helping ease some of the earlier cars’ wrinkles and proving that a properly sorted – for ‘properly sorted’ read ‘properly built’ because the integrity of the engineering had never been in doubt – Jaguar was a force to be reckoned with.
And if the Jaguar XJ/Daimler Sovereign was to steal the title of The Best Car in The World from the Germans it needed a better-than-average engine propelling it; while the straight sixes were a fine choice if halfway-decent fuel consumption was your goal, the magnificent 5.3-litre V12 was the engine you really wanted under that perfectly proportioned bonnet.
The Series I and II cars were fitted with the 5,343 SOHC V12 engine, while the later cars from 1981 onwards received the high-compression Fireball cylinder head, at which point the V12 developed 299bhp alongside much better torque and slightly better fuel efficiency than the earlier cars.
(Although, when we say that it was more fuel efficient you don’t need us to tell you that in the case of any V12-engined car, everything is relative…)
And, despite an aging chassis and interior – and a constant battle to meet ever-more stringent emissions regulations – the press and public continued to love ‘em, even into the late 1990s.
As Autocar & Motor magazine wrote in 1991, ‘there’s still something about the Jaguar – its innate restraint, good taste and grace – that the others lack entirely. It’s a beautiful car and for some, that will always be enough.’
CAR magazine, always arbiters of good taste, simply called them “the best car in the world”.
Mission accomplished.
