James Taylor remembers very well the disappointment among his petrol-head friends when the XJ-S was announced in 1975. It was not a replacement for the legendary E-type; its colours were uninspired; and its interior was drab. All credit, then, to those people at Jaguar who truly believed in the car and, over a period of nearly 20 years, turned the ugly duckling into a swan. From the moment the XJ-S HE arrived in 1981, there seemed to be renewed hope, and from then on, the car went from strength to strength to become the much-admired grand tourer it always should have been.

The book contains: 

• A timeline of the key events in the history of the XJ-S
• An overview of the evolution of the XJ-S from the XJ27 prototype
• Highly detailed chapters containing production figures, paint and trim options by year and technical specifications
• A chapter on buying and owning an XJ-S
• Appendices covering identification/serial numbers, UK showroom prices through the years and sales in the US by year