Jaguar offered the mighty XJS grand tourer from the 1976 by way of 1996 mannequin years, and I’ve documented quite a few of them in their final parking spaces. For 1997, the alternative for that legendary automobile lastly arrived, within the type of the oft-delayed XK8. Here is a kind of first-year automobiles, present in a self-service yard in Denver, Colorado not too long ago.
Development of this car’s platform and general shape goes again to 1980, when limitless prototypes have been constructed and forgotten. As soon as Ford took over Jaguar in 1990, the abaondoned XJ41 undertaking was revived and became the 1994 Aston Martin DB7. Quick-forward three years and also you get a Jaguar-badged cousin of that automobile.
The 1997 XK8 might be bought in coupe or convertible type. The highest on this automobile has seen higher days.
How a lot, you ask? A cool $69,900, which might be round $130,165 in 2022 dollars. Should you needed the Aston Martin DB7 Volante convertible that yr, the value tag was $135,000 ($251,395 now).
As we have seen on this sequence, subtle European equipment requires fastidious upkeep on the dot, otherwise you get hit with restore payments bigger than the automobile’s worth as soon as it hits age 10 or so. As soon as a automobile like this reaches its fourth or fifth proprietor, the Clock of Doom begins ticking very loudly if it was ever uncared for previous to that.
It seems that preparation for physique and paint work befell however was by no means accomplished.
The engine is a four.Zero-liter Jaguar DOHC V8 rated at 290 horsepower, identical because the one in the XJ8. In 1998, a 370-horse supercharged model referred to as the XKR grew to become accessible.
The Lincoln LS and 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird acquired a de-bored three.9-liter model of this engine.
The transmission in 1997 was a compulsory five-speed ZF computerized, no matter which facet of the Atlantic you lived on. The truth is, each road XK8 ever constructed had an computerized when it left the meeting line (although I am certain some three-pedal swaps have been carried out by now).
These automobiles aren’t precisely widespread in your native Ewe Pullet, however they are out there.Â
As some 24 Hours of Lemons racers in Texas found, you should purchase a DB7 shell low-cost at public sale after which bolt in all the things you must make it a runner by stripping a good cheaper XK8 donor automobile.Â
A brand new breed of Jaguar.
Here is the video issued to UK-market XK8 consumers.