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Hey guys, I am 25 and bought my jag when I was 19, due to being a student then getting married etc i havnt had any money for my beuty in the garage, I have been given the impression ( could be false ) that my Jag with less than 80000 kms is pre production.
When i decode the VIN i get the wrong car.
would you guys have a look at the VIN and tell me what i have and if its special.
Thanks so much,
Pics attached.
Welcome to the Jaguar Forums! It's great to have you with us.
I am not an expert on Jaguar VINs, but according to jaguarlandroverclassicparts, the first production XJ40 had a VIN ending in 500001. This suggests that your car, with a VIN ending in 501983, is possibly the 1982nd XJ40 produced, so early, but not a pre-production car.
Some of our knowledgeable members may be able to tell you about differences in VINs for different regions of the world.
I know of a 1986 car with a VIN 504501, that's a pretty early date and with yours being even earlier in the run, maybe it is pre-production or at least a very early build ..BUT ...
According to Andrew Whyte, in his must-have book, "XJ40 - Evolution of the species", he states that volume production began in July 1986 with the official UK launch in October. Prior to the start of production, test vehicles were built starting in 1981. As I understand it, there were just a few of these built in various guises each year afterwards - finally, in June 1986 the pilot built vehicles numbered 400.
From what I can gather with a quick flip through the book, these 400 cars are the pre-production models.
Pick up a copy of the book if you're interested in the development of our car - it tells the whole story.
Cheers
Larry
p.s.
I took the liberty of adjusting your photo, hope you don't mind - beautiful car BTW!
Last edited by Lawrence; Aug 14, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
The question of the exact VIN of the pre-production XJ40s and the VIN for the start of true series production was answered some years ago by Rob Jenner when he was a member of XJ40.com. Rob Jenner's father was production director at Jaguar in this period and Rob himself had a deep connection to the company and had access to their archives and records - he did quite a bit of research in the archives with the blessing of Jaguar, so is an authoritative source of information on the cars. Indeed few, if any, know more about them.
In this post he reveals:
The first XJ40 was built in December 1983
The first pilot car was VIN 500379 built in May 1986
The last pilot car was VIN 501652 built on 18/10/1986
Series production started at VIN 502678 on track 6
So your car with VIN 501983 is a very early car indeed, built a handful of cars after pilot production ended but before full, standardised series production of the cars had begun. There will be very few of these left.
"with the motor show being in October, the 40 would have been at the show, there is no official launch date that I am aware off, it was a drip feed launch, we had TV launch, press launch, staff launch, (these were called J days, held at the NEC for staff and families, we were at one in June 1986), European launch and a US launch, first cars were built in December 1983, first pilot build cars came in May 1986 at vin 500379 and lasted until vin 501652 which was 18/10/86, my own , now deaprted D700 DAC was the 51st pilot build car built on track one at Browns Lane on 28/08/86 at vin 500875, true production cars started at 502678 on track six, up to this vin, if you can find one, an early car will have a lot of ongoing detail changes not seen on any other 40's, those of you who were at Black Sheep will have seen David Marks, very early car, (parts of my D700 live on in this car as David had never been able to find the pre pro parts), and if you have a look at the October JEC mag you will see some of the original pictures of the Techinical Launch set up, where a 40 was taken in to a hotel on it's side to get it through the doors!!"
Not sure if special
