By the mid 1990s, Jaguar's big grand touring coupe, the XJS (renamed from XJ-S after Jag was acquired by Ford) had been carrying the marque's sporting flag for two decades and was decidedly long in the tooth.
The cash infusion from Dearborn helped push its replacement over the goal line and into production. The new XK8, internally known as the X100, was a svelter design that was intended to be more reminiscent of the classic XK-E from days of yore. Unlike the XJS it replaced, which came into the world during an era when ragtops were on the outs, the XK8 was intended to be a convertible from the start and in fact the droptop XK8 outsold the coupe version by better than two-to-one over its decade long model run.
Carrying the floorpan (and thus the wheelbase length) and a few structural bits over from the XJS, the XK was otherwise largely a clean sheet of paper. Sharing the design of its independent rear suspension with the XJ sedans, the XK8 was launched with a new all-alloy 4.0L DOHC 32V V-8. Dubbed the Jaguar AJ26, it made 290 SAE net horsepower at 6100 rpm.
This was enough to shove a '97 XK8 to sixty in 6.7 seconds in Motor Trend's testing at the time, on the way to a quarter mile in fifteen flat at 95mph through the traps.
This Meteorite Silver Metallic example was photographed with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and a Panasonic Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens in October of 2025.
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