Saturday, November 23, 2024

1996 Jaguar XJS Convertible


A 1996 Jaguar XJS convertible in Signal Red.

The basic lines on this grand tourer were twenty years old by '96, with the car having been introduced as the XJ-S in 1975. The hyphen went away with the light styling refresh of 1991 that followed Jag's purchase by FoMoCo.

Like my '94 Mustang GT, this is a design that predates the Euro pedestrian-protection standards that went into effect around the turn of the millennium. As a result, the sixteen-inch wheels and tall sidewalls of the 55-series rubber look oddly quaint after a couple decades of grocery-getter sedans and secretarymobile sporty coupes flaunting 18+" rims and 45-series (or lower) rubber.

They sure make a lot more sense on the bomb-crater pavement of Indianapolis, though.

The owner flashing both the Leaper and Growler on the hood is a mite busy for my tastes, but it's his Barbie doll and he can dress it how he pleases.


This '96 is from the last model year for the XJS. I was personally a huge fan of them... it was my dream car as a young teen ...but the XK8 that replaced it was a lot closer in style to the revered E-Type.

It was photographed in September of 2023 using a Nikon 1 V1 and a 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 lens.

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