Spring is coming and what better way to start it than the suave smoothness of a Jaguar XJ8 (X308) from member Ray Brooks. In Ray's own words:
“ I’ve been a Jaguar owner since my eighteenth birthday when (with a little bit of help from my late father) I acquired my first XJ-6, a Series One 4.2 auto with eight thousand miles on the clock from my good friends at Hurst Park Automobiles in Surrey; we remain in contact to this very day. I also admit to being a little “OCD” with my cars and by coincidence it wasn’t long before I had the benefit of a company car leaving the Series One for dry weekend and JDC event use only. Fast forward a few years and as company cars began to be taxed out of existence I found myself running a series of Vauxhall Omega 3.0’s in the nineties. At that time my Jaguar collection had expanded to a 28k miles Series 1 1/2 E type 4.2 roadster, a 50k miles one previous owner Mark V11, the original XJ-6 Series One and a Series Two 4.2 XJ. In 1999 therefore I suddenly questioned myself as why, despite the great car the 3.0 Omega was, I did not use a current XJ-8 on a daily basis ?
Enter 444 DSX registered on 7th January 2000, a 3.2 auto Executive spec finished in Seafrost with Oatmeal leather and starburst alloys, the last Omega being exchanged as part of the deal with Harwoods of Chichester who continue to meticulously maintain the car to this very day. It is no coincidence that with it’s current recorded mileage of 35,400 the car continues to drive and perform as well as it did on the day of delivery, being religiously returned to Harwoods for annual servicing every year irrespective of mileage and until his recent retirement a year or so ago, signed off by the same master techician every year.
In the last 26 years, apart from routine servicing she has only required replacement of the infamous “valley hose” and a new fuel pump both rectified by the superb team at Harwoods Chichester from whom the car is always returned without so much as a fingerprint in sight. That is not to say there havn’t been moments of concern !! Most of you reading this will no doubt recall those dreaded words “nikasil liners” !!! Back in 2000 it seems Jaguar themselves had really no idea which specific cars had “nikasil” engines and which had traditional cast iron liners there being (at the time) allegedly no definitive cut off date !!! We received all manner of definitions including certain VIN numbers and then having this categorically refuted and being told the relevant determination was by engine numbers !!!! In truth, nobody knew where they were !!!! It was characteristically the relatively short journey cars (by definition therefore low mileage examples) and those using supermarket fuel which were quite disastrously affected by what came to be known as “bore wash”. Fortunately 444 DSX has always (and continues to be) run on premium grade, non supermarket fuel, never being used for less than 50 mile trips but above all as it was registered post 1st January 2000 has never encountered fuel with 5% plus sulphur content. In the fullness of time I have of course tracked back Jaguar’s records and having discovered my engine was built in September 1999 confirming it is indeed a Nikasil unit and therefore a survivor. Today, that does not worry me at all, in fact quite the opposite as these units are much lighter and in all other respects pretty bullet proof plus now it is a fairly rare car in it’s own right since where a simple blow by test read over 37 Jaguar simply replaced the engines under warranty. So far as timing chain tensioners are concerned my car has the intermediates so at this mileage (and in consideration of the near silent running) I see no need to upgrade to the third generation. Last year as a precautionary measure Harwoods did replace the rear suspension mounts simply to maintain that famous “magic carpet ride”. I have also just replaced the second set of Pirelli P6000 tyres purely on of age not wear which presented some challenges as the original spec is not available but we got there in the end with as close a look alike as makes no difference !!!
As you may have guessed by the mileage my “car OCD” sooner or later took over and 444 DSX never saw any supermarket car parks or wet weather, let alone salt, just sunny days at Jaguar Enthusiast Club and other events. I did have every intention of this car being my daily driver when purchased but in those days we still drove to supermarkets and used their car parks. No matter how far away I parked there always seemed to be somebody else who needed to park up close and my nerves just wouldn’t stand it. Today of course it is also very rare to find a parking space where an XJ-8 does not hang over one end or the other of a parking bay !!!!
In many respects whilst I love every XJ variant as the ultimate expression of “grace, space, pace”, the 308 does for me represent the ultimate interpretation of Sir William Lyon’s original concept from 1968. In life there are cars which are “keepers” and cars which are “sellers”; for me 444 DSX is most definitely a keeper sharing space in the garage with the other Jaguars in my current collection as indeed my late father did with his Jaguars for forty years before me….. but that’s another story !!!!! “.
