Nearly 20,000 clicks from its Coventry birthplace, Nelson Jaguar Drivers Club members marked the 50th anniversary of the Jaguar XJS model on Sunday.
While two of the six XJS’s in the 110-member club put the brakes on the full fleet purring into the Nelson Classic Car Museum carpark for the occasion due to engine troubles and travel elsewhere, the “lovely, cruisey” luxury cars were as sleek as they had been since their 1975 release.
Wakefield-based club president and life member John Eales has owned his 1977 XJS since 2002, and says shifting into anniversary mode for the model was “a nice thing to do for a Jaguar man”.
“It’s nice to commemorate certain parts of Jaguar’s history… a lot of people didn’t like them when they first came out, because of the flying buttress, because they follow the Series 3 E-Types,” he says.
“People used to assert the E-Types because they are such a pretty car… the XJS wasn’t a sports car, it was a grand tourer, you get in and have a relaxing drive.”
When asked why people should splurge on this model, John enthuses, “You’ve got to love them, they’re a lovely, cruisey car, I’ve had mine from Kaitaia to Bluff.”
