between my old sig and this pic you should get a good idea of what i did about my hideous rubber bumpers. with some gas strut modifications and a few hours of polishing i got a nice look IMHO.

i agree with almost all your points. which is why im rocking the euro headlight conversion, 2.25" true duals, a bunch of weight reduction mods, and an engine/trans combo that sits behind the front wheels, instead of overtop of it.

 

Aptly stated mate.

 

I wanted to move the rear wheels back to get closer to "a wheel in each corner". Shorter wheelbase counts if you want something for really fast driving (as in track days) on twisty bits, but only if the overhangs (read weight) are short so as to keep the weight within the wheelbase. With stiffer suspension even the base car is quite good on the road. And the rear seats are not useless. I ferried my children in them all the time when it was my daily driver. Oh, and the lozenge headlights were made thus for a reason: They fit the design like hand in glove.

It is after all a GT, not a sports car. If you want a sports car, buy one! This ought to spark off a good discussion or two

 

The rear light on the facelifts are from before Fords time. They are identical to the ones found in the mid 80's XJ41 concept. The facelift, and for that matter the 97 XK8 where already in the works long before Ford took over. Ford just dumped the money for quality control.

 

JameyXJ6 and Rico57,

I'm glad you guys like the concept. However, it would not be such a simple thing to do to an existing XJS. It's not that the rear seat is being removed and that the engine is being moved backward in the body. The premis of the concept was "What would I do if I could redesign the XJS?", so it would be much simpler to start with a clean sheet of paper, as if the XJS design had not yet been finalize and approved by Sir William.

If you look closer at the drawing, you will see that, compared to a stock XJS, the engine AND the entire body is moved backwards 6 inches on the stock 102 inch wheelbase. The length of the doors is unchanged, as is the front seating area of the passenger compartment. However, the distance from the front edge of the door to the front wheel is increased, and the distance from the rear edge of the door to the rear wheel is decreased. In fact, the doors, hood, and cowl would be the only sheetmetal which would remain unaltered. Every other panel on the car would either be shortened or lengthened.

It's not that this "can't" be done to an existing XJS, it's just that it would be a major undertaking, easily costing tens of thousands of dollars.

 

First, let me state that I will never convert my headlights from the standard 4 headlight US setup, to the single lens Euro look. They make the front end look too faceless and generic for my taste.

My complaint about the chrome surrounds on the 4 headlight setup is that they look like what they are: cheap, ill-fitting and tacky plastic stampings that looks like they were copied from the front of a 1966 Ford Thunderbird, instead of what they should be: sturdy, stylized, well-crafted pieces which match the contours of the car, and look like they belong on an upscale, low production vehicle like the XJS.

Jaguar could have done MUCH better with little effort, and little if any additional expense.

Look at the attached photos and see for yourself how poorly this hunk of chromed plastic matches up to the grill and front edge of the hood.

 

Vee
How much input do you think that Ford had to the design?
Just as a matter of interest do you think that their input was either aesthetic or to make the car more saleable in the US? Or are the two mutually excluslive (that sounds a bit wrong but I know what I mean).
Ford was (is) an enormous company and their only possible reason for buying a little dipshit company like Jaguar would be to add a little exoticism to the brand.
Given that, the money, support and lack of titting around with every single bloody thing enabled Jaguar to pull its collective fingers out of its collective ***** and turn the whole clusterf***k around and enable the company to produce cars that wouldn't (mostly) break down every 10 minutes and that people actually wanted to buy.
And it also made the whole brand more saleable which is why it is now owned by an Indian company (whose bank has just gone **** up) and makes it possible to open a manufacturing plant in China.
Go figure.
The worst *******isation of any car that I ever saw was the Triumph Acclaim.
An oxymoron if ever I heard one.
At the moment I think that we should be thankful that whomever actually owns Jaguar, they are letting the people that do the cars, do the cars.
All they have to do now is stop putting so many bloody electrics in them!

 

Thanks for the pics of the lights! I thought mine were poor fitting because of some ancient fender bender and ended up shortening and re-welding original headlight frames, to make them fit flush. Now I know that mine were sitting perfectly fine, according to the British "that will do" standards. See the pics...

 

Nope. It wasn't just yours, They're all like that.

Great job on straightening them up on your car. How can the rest of us do it too?

 

I agree that the surrounds are tacky, but at least they are slimmer on the euro headlights. And I disagree heartily regarding the look, the twin version is the afterthought, those surrounds are about as flash as a rat with a gold tooth . Non descript? Hate it or love it, nobody have ever accused the XJ-S of being non descript in any way.

 

Might look a bit nicer if you polish everything up, as the rest of it is a bit on the worn side. There is some definite non-factory misalignment going on there, as well.

I know they never fit perfectly, but every bit of trim up there is off.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but the bezels on my '96 are properly chromed metal, as is the rest of the trim, and it's all sexy as hell to this very day.

I need to do a bit of polish on the pillars, which seem to be stainless, but aside from that, it's good to go.



I never did understand the blackish bronzish brownish Growler badge, though. It sticks out like a sore thumb. That's going off for chrome soon, just to cap everything off.

As for the old black trimmed bumpers, it's only a few hour job to get a good coat of body color on them. I've seen it done, and it looks very nice. It transforms the vehicle.

If you want to blame somebody for the bumpers, blame California. If you don't want to blame California, blame anyone named Steve, Jim, or Octavius.

 

Ha. It looks worn because it IS worn. This car is my daily driver, not a garage queen that only sees occasional weekend/recreational use. I drive it over 200 miles per week on filthy Mississippi roadways, and it hasn't been washed since I drove it in rain two days this week. I shot those 2 photos at the spur of the moment, simply to illustrate my point about the surrounds.

 

I sadly did not take pictures of the process, but it was rather simple. I sunk inner side headlight bracket on both sides, by cutting off about 1/4" of metal and welding it back on. I also drilled mounting holes to 3/4" size, so I could move lights around more. Large washers took care of covering these large holes just fine. It is still not perfect, but "that will do" for Ohio.

 

well; looks like we kick this topic all over the map!

on second thought im gonna leave my XJS just the way it is, the way i did it back in 1995!
mine runs and drives great, and much appreciated by many people, they dont all agree, but do respect the car for the mods done to it!

everybody has there own opinions and ideas.

 

If you want fat and overgrown, park your Jag next to a new Mustang, Camaro, or Challenger. They are all heavier, taller, longer, and wider than the XJS. Makes ours look positively sleek by comparison.

Everyone complains about the XJS weighing 3800 lbs; in this group it's a lightweight.

 

That's a great looking color on the XJS, and it's obviously not a factory paint code. What is the name and manufacturer of that color? Was there any special color undercoat required?

 

PPG Deltron DBC + PPG 2021 clear , Atomic Orange Pearl, color Code WA418P, native for 07-09 Corvette.

 

Newer cars are taller and wider for sure. But the XJS is longer even than the current XK

 

Well if we are going to be contrasting an xjs with something like a new Camaro, just ask me I have both! I've always wanted a Camaro and I love every minute of driving it.

However I actually prefer the ride of my jag to my '11 Camaro. The Camaro's suspension is pretty stiff and the seating posture is very low which makes long trips a bit uncomfortable. Your legs are pretty much at the same level as the pedals because the seat is so low. Basically you are about 6" off the floor pan.

The Jag, since I replaced the coils and shocks feels lighter, more nimble, and strangely more powerful than the Camaro. I also like knowing that I can pop the rear end of the car out when going around a corner by hitting the gas if I feel like some "exuberant" driving!

(try doing this in the Camaro and the traction and stability management systems go crazy, annoyingly reducing engine throttle, distributing power between the two rear wheels to assure no traction is lost, and pumping air into the shocks to level the car. but where's the fun in that? :-) )

The Jag is just more hands on and less computerized.

As for the the redesign of the jag, I prefer the original. Even the rubber bumpers have grown on me. My car looks all stock and I like to keep it that way. All the money is under the hood. I like the proportions on the xj-s and don't wish to change a thing........ Except and ALUMINUM xjs would be ULTRA cool. :-)

 

to be honest, the rubber bumpers dont bother me too much, provided you adjust your gas struts to make them fit more flush.