The first Jaguar XJ looks lower and more delicate than you expect a luxury saloon to look. Four headlamps sit below the crest of the bonnet, and there is glass where later designers might have put a taller door. From the driver’s seat, those proportions make sense. Sir William Lyons wanted a saloon that could take a corner with something of the ease of an E-Type.
September 1968
The XJ6 launched on 26 September with 2.8- and 4.2-litre versions of Jaguar’s XK straight-six. Chief engineer Bob Knight’s suspension work helped give it the combination of ride and road holding that Jaguar wanted. The 4.2-litre model cost £2,258 at launch, according to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. That figure belongs to 1968, but it explains an important part of the reception: the car put that experience within reach of buyers who might have expected to pay considerably more for it.
The straight-six and the V12
The original 4.2 is the version I would start with if the point is to understand the early XJ6. The V12 arrived in 1972 as the XJ12 and deserves a story of its own. The Trust records 98,527 cars across the Series 1 range through 1973. That total includes the V12 and Daimler variants as well as XJ6s, so it cannot tell you how many cars of a particular specification were built.
What survives underneath
On a Series 1, the first inspection should spend more time on the shell than on the leather. Have the sills, floor and suspension mounting areas checked, and ask for photographs and invoices from any structural restoration. Try the car from cold and check that it settles to a stable temperature. Original trim and an attractive colour are worth considering once the body and mechanical condition are clear.
The XJ6 is at its most convincing when it makes an ordinary journey feel unhurried. That is an achievement of the chassis, the view out and the way the controls work together. You can see the shape in a photograph, but you need to drive a good one to understand why it mattered.
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust · Jaguar XJ Series 1 archive
Cover photo by Self-Proclaimed-Car-Enthusiast, CC BY-SA 4.0. The same licence applies to any crop.
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