I expect everyone will have his or her own personal view of what the term classic really means. Perhaps this is based on age group, and the cars that were around in your youth/ formative years.
With that in mind, I guess there will be others who don’t agree with what I consider a classic and that’s fine — we’re all entitled to our own opinions and rather like beauty, perhaps we should view that the perception of a classic is in the eye of the beholder.
What about the technicalities of a classic status?
The government’s free road fund license is now set at a rolling 40 year, rather than 30. But, insurers will generally give you classic cover for anything over 20. So there’s two different stand points.
However, to the individual, those are rather less meaningful than how a car “makes you feel”.
Personally, I think that for its time the XJ40 was a very advanced car, despite its rather long development period. And when it was released I think it was a thoroughly modern car, especially with its space age, digital dash (think Space Invaders) on the early models and advanced electronics for the time.
Of course, not all of it proved to be reliable, but that’s what happens when you pioneer new technology. Not all of it works exactly as planned.
It may be a coincidence, but the first XJ40 I bought, was a 1993 model, which was the same year that I passed my driving test. Perhaps there was just something meant to be...
For me the XJ40 represents more than simply a classic car — it bridges the gap between classic and modern. It has the classic elements that we love about British cars. It has lashings of chrome, walnut and leather, but with robust engineering, reliability and build-quality that would be expected of a modern car.
I strongly believe XJ40 can be reliable, if properly maintained. The big problem is that so many of them fell of the wagon when they past the stage when they were worth anything anymore. That’s when maintenance stopped and people just ran them into the ground.
So it’s easy then to point a finger and say: “look how unreliable it is”. Yet, many of these cars have not had a penny spent on them for at least 10 years.
The later cars in particular had improved build quality, which to me makes them thoroughly useable as a daily driver. Treat them right and the rewards will be endless. Treat them wrong and the pain will be significant.
Of course, it helps to have a tidy, well-maintained car to begin with, but a high majority of my collection have risen from examples that have suffered some kind of neglect in recent years.
With some attention to detail and a through service, coupled with some regular use, you can start to feel the blood flowing again.
Many owners I speak to are happy to jump in their XJ40 and do a long jaunt across Europe without fear of mishaps. Even remarking on how little fuel it’s used (relatively).
I myself had an incident free, 1500 mile sprint to Hamburg/ Germany and back two years ago in my XJR Manual, as a nice reward for the stage one restoration completion. Though one could argue that maybe a classic should not be reliable, in order to keep its ‘Character’.
As someone who runs these cars everyday, maybe I am bias, but all I can do is comment on my own experience and recall the experiences of like-minded enthusiasts that I talk to.
Maybe we could invent a brand new status for those cars one better than a standard classic and call it: ‘Classic +’.
Fancy helping us celebrate?
Naki is currently organising the XJ40’s 30###sup/sup### anniversary in Dunkeld, which is where the car was originally launched and there’s a large number of the original XJ40 design team attending.
The JEC event is taking place over the long Bank holiday weekend in August from Sunday 28th and Monday 29th. For more details or to book contact Naki via email: [email protected].
