actually it fits the xk150 because it leaps forward the same way the headlights and fenders do. It matches like 10 other shapes on the front of the car. It doesn't have to just be "preference," there is a reason it looks good, a logical reason that it strikes people as good or bad.

The XJS has none of those features. It is long and sloping just a bit, with the front end more or less cutting straight off. The leaper has no other bits matching its shape or height, it is a different angle than the hood and going in the opposite direction.

I am sure tons of people got leapers because they wanted to show off, im sure tons got the leaper because it IS cool, but had no sense of style or idea that it wouldn't look right on the car. I am sure there are tons of people that got them and genuinely enjoyed them. However the bulk of owners who appreciate the XJS today do not like them.

Just because people got them doesn't mean they look good, if that is your only logic, then all the "ill fitting" shitty aftermarket rims actually look awesome because so many people have them, so they must have good style.
The reality is the people with ugly wheels are the same people with ugly tints and the same people that thing the leaper looks good and like putting horrid chrome fender flares on the car.

 

Lets not let this subject divide us. After all, we are all here for the same reason...we love our Jaguar.

I don't care about leapers, wheels, tint or whatever. I say live and let live. If someone is happy with the way they have styled their car then that's OK for me.

All Jag lovers are friends of mine.

Mark

 

yeah i mean im happy to see them no matter what their condition, was just saying i think the cars with leapers are the abnormal ones and most people seem to agree they look better without them for a reason that make sense

 

+1
I get soo excited when I see another XJS, I don't care what the owner has done to his car, I'm just happy to see it.

 

I love seeing any XJS out and about. The only thing I have seen from photos that to me just does not look right to my eye on the XJS is over sized wheels mounted on one. When I say over sized I mean like 20" wheels and bigger.

Luckily you do not see this often at all but every once and a while I will see a XJS with big over sized wheels and to me just makes the car look goofy.

So to Mark in Houston I say " I feel your pain "

 

The fitment of a 'Leaper' on an XJS, that doesn't already have one, is as close to Slashing a 'Rembrandt' as its possible to get!

 

They put name badges in the centre of the steering wheel on modern cars......why is that then??? To remind you what you bought? (maybe they need to as most modern cars look like at least a dozen others). I am talking about old cars and their original objectives, and how that train of thought is no longer valid on modern cars, as the modern car's outside is designed to impress more than the inside. If I spend ****-loads of cash on a car, I want to get some sort of pleasure whilst I'm driving it, and not just from the thought that I am impressing those outside. The original luxury emblem'd cars were, after all, designed and built to cosset the rich who didn't give a damn about what the "little people" thought, and that ideal has been "pleb'd enough for hood emblems to end up on all sorts of average cars now-days. Its a shame, but there it is. Anyway, its only my opinion and an alternative theory which is enough to stop me being a lemming. :-D

 

+1 to without leaper on xjs.
I like the badges, on the other hand, and I do love the cloisonné badge on 4.0 celebrations.
It look really gorgeous!
I wish they'd made one for V12s.

 

Doug. Grotesque?? Must I presume you also removed the Jaguar emblems on the front quarter panels too?
A small leaper looks quite nice on the XJS or any Jaguar, in my humble opinion of course.
Cheers, RagJag.

 

I have three XJS's, and the hood of each is different. One has a leaper; one has a growler; and, one has a hole in the hood surrounded by bright red, new looking-paint that indicates where the original hood ornament sat. Someone obviously DID think the Cat looked good.


I will replace it with something, and the choice will not be that difficult for me. I like it with one, with the other, or with nothing. It's likely that I will replace it with a nice looking growler that's on a 1990 wrecked parts car that I own.


I've enjoyed reading about the strong opinions related to both sides of this issue. Cheers to all.

 

Pete:


I like it!!!


Well, the official mascot of my high school is/was the Panther!!! usually depicted in gold.


The cross town rival had the Tiger as theirs. So, an enterprising Panther band leader
adopted "Tiger Rag" and adjusted it. "Kill that dirty Tiger", emphasized with hearty tuba work. Probably out of the question nowadays.


But, in my senior year our football team smashed theirs 39-0 in their stadium!!!


Garage endeavours inconclusive this morning. both the Jaguar and the vacumn ???
Carl

 

Don't know if anyone has said this on this thread or not, but the Factory NEVER put a leaper on an XJS. If someone bought a car with one from new, it was something a dealer added. Hood ornamentation looks good on a Rolls, with their prominent, stately grills, but way out of place on a low, sloping bonnet that was designed to be that shape for aerodynamic purposes. Malcolm Sayer would roll over in his grave!

 

Is it time to move on to a facelift tail light poll now?

 

HaHa, took the words right out of my mouth! Maybe a nice oil thread, or spark plugs. Hey euro vs quad headlights hasn't been discussed for a few weeks.

 

Strange enough I have a photo of one of my 1995 XJS' parked next to a 1952 XK120 and to my eye the way the fenders and headlights come up above the hood on the XJS does work to some degree with the leaper. I suspect this is why a small leaper on the XJS placed right where the badge would go does not look out of the place on the XJS.

Compare this to an E type or XK8 front end for example, where the fenders slope down with the hood and the leaper looks completely out of place.

Lets face it those of us who do not care for the leaper on the XJS would never put one on but sometimes we buy one with the leaper already on the car and as in my case if tastefully done it may just work for you enough not to remove it.

I must say the XJS I bought with the leaper would loose some of its character if I were to take it off since I am use to seeing it on this car. In my mind if something like the leaper does not "jump out at you"-LOL, every time you look at the car then it can work with that car.

 

why does the leaper have to be on the hood??

hers mine, and it quickly explains whats under the hood!

 

Absolutely and totally agree... and this was my response to this "flaw":
Of course, you can't do this with a V12...

 

What an Amazing Color!

What shade of Green is She?

 

i have a cig. butt in my rear seat ash tray, does that qualify?

 

The small chrome leaper looks nice on the XJS. Blacked out tail light lens, which Jaguar didn't make enough of, on the other hand, do not look good.
RagJag