Junkyard Gem: 1997 Jaguar XK8

Jaguar bought the mighty XJS grand tourer from the 1976 via 1996 mannequin years, and I’ve documented fairly a couple of of them of their remaining parking areas. For 1997, the alternative for that legendary automotive lastly arrived, within the type of the oft-delayed XK8. Here is a kind of first-year automobiles, present in a self-service yard in Denver, Colorado lately.

Growth of this automotive’s platform and basic form goes again to 1980, when limitless prototypes had been constructed and forgotten. As soon as Ford took over Jaguar in 1990, the abaondoned XJ41 undertaking was revived and have become the 1994 Aston Martin DB7. Quick-forward three years and also you get a Jaguar-badged cousin of that automotive.

The 1997 XK8 could possibly be bought in coupe or convertible type. The highest on this automotive has seen higher days.

How a lot, you ask? A cool $69,900, which might be round $130,165 in 2022 {dollars}. In case you needed the Aston Martin DB7 Volante convertible that 12 months, the worth tag was $135,000 ($251,395 now).

As we have seen on this sequence, refined European equipment requires fastidious upkeep on the dot, otherwise you get hit with restore payments bigger than the automotive’s worth as soon as it hits age 10 or so. As soon as a automotive like this reaches its fourth or fifth proprietor, the Clock of Doom begins ticking very loudly if it was ever uncared for previous to that.

It seems that preparation for physique and paint work occurred however was by no means accomplished.

The engine is a 4.0-liter Jaguar DOHC V8 rated at 290 horsepower, similar because the one within the XJ8. In 1998, a 370-horse supercharged model often called the XKR turned out there.

The Lincoln LS and 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird obtained a de-bored 3.9-liter model of this engine.

The transmission in 1997 was a compulsory five-speed ZF automated, no matter which aspect of the Atlantic you lived on. In actual fact, each road XK8 ever constructed had an automated when it left the meeting line (although I am certain some three-pedal swaps have been carried out by now).

These automobiles aren’t precisely widespread in your native Ewe Pullet, however they are on the market. 

As some 24 Hours of Lemons racers in Texas found, you should buy a DB7 shell low-cost at public sale after which bolt in the whole lot you might want to make it a runner by stripping a good cheaper XK8 donor automotive. 

A brand new breed of Jaguar.

Here is the video issued to UK-market XK8 patrons.