There is an whole lot happening at Jaguar these days, and it's very exciting. It has its cool factor back with cars like the F-Type. Soon, there will be an aluminum 3-series rival. And apparently they're being so bold as to take another stab at an XJ Coupe.
CAR reports the next-generation XJ will also spawn a large two-door coupe sometime around 2019 to do battle with the Mercedes S-Class Coupe and Bentley Continental GT.
Another XJ Coupe? Few remember the XJ-C, the pillarless rival to Mercedes-Benz's and BMW's gorgeous '70s coupes. That's a shame, because it was a very beautiful version of the very beautiful original XJ6.
According to AROnline, the original XJ coupe was introduced in April 1975 and was underserved from the start. The weight of U.S. safety and emissions requirements had already hobbled the Series II XJ on which the coupe was based.
Then there was the reality that British Leyland, of which Jaguar was part of then, was severely underfunded and unorganized. That meant there was no fixing the quality problems on the coupe. Nor could it afford to keep it in production when the softer E-Type replacing XJ-S was entering production soon.
After two and a half years and 10,000 or so cars, the XJ-C was killed off. That's a tragedy considering how odd the XJ-S looked in the mid-'70s. Someone at my high school had an XJ-C and even its tattered padded roof couldn't hurt its beauty too badly. It was a truly elegant car.
Jaguar has proven it can do sporty. A breathtakingly elegant rival to the gaudy Mercedes and Bentley would serve the brand well.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons