The XJ-S grand touring coupe, which launched in '75 to replace the XK-E, didn't get a convertible version until '83, and even then it was only sort of a quasi-convertible. The XJ-SC had a targa bar and longitudinal rails above the side windows, so that even with the windows down and soft top rolled all the way back, it wasn't much more of a convertible than a Citroen 2CV.
If you wanted a full convertible, the aftermarket firm Hess & Eisenhardt, better known for armored limousine conversions, fabricated a couple thousand for Jaguar in the mid-'80s. They were spendy because the conversion process was so involved, basically disassembling the car to weld in support structures and replacing the single large fuel tank with a pair of smaller ones with the well for the retracted top between them.
It wasn't until the '88 model year that a full convertible became available straight from the factory, with an engineering assist from German coachbuilding firm Karmann. Like the "basket-roof" XJ-SC and the Hess & Eisenhardt conversions, the folding factory convertible top cost the car its rear seats.
The quad round headlamps on this Solent Blue Metallic car tell us it's a 1988-1990 model, before the XJ-S got a facelift and lost its hyphen. Under the hood...or bonnet, as the Brits call it...would be the 326 cubic inch...or 5.3 Litre, as the Brits call it...SOHC fuel-injected H.E. V-12 that had powered the coupes since 1981, backed with a three-speed automatic transmission. By '89 it was making 262 SAE net horsepower, which had to deal with 4,184 pounds of big cat.
When Car and Driver put an '88 droptop XJ-S through its paces, it laid down an 8.1 second zero-to-sixty run and a 16.2 quarter at 90mph on the way to a top speed of 141. Price as tested was $56,300, or a bit over $151k in today's dough.
This one was photographed in May of 2023 using an Olympus E-5 and a Panasonic Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-150mm F3.5-5.6 Asph zoom lens.