Jaguar World – July 2019

BUYING AFFORDABLECONVERTIBLES

32 |JaguarWorld/July 2019

W

hentheXJ-SCabriolet
reachedproductionin 19 83,
Jaguar’sengineerscould
finallygetonwiththejobof
developingafullconvertible.
Unlikeitspredecessor,thiscarwasamodel
initsownright,engineeredassuchfromthe
outsetandthuslackingtheneedforoutside
ccoonnttrraaccttoorrssiinniittsspprroodduuccttiioonn..IIttwwaassnn’ttaann
easyconversion,though.Ittook 108 new
panelsand 48 modifiedpressingsto
transformtheXJ-Sintoaconvertible,with
reinforcementsaddedtothetransmission
tunnel,frontandrearbulkheads,plusthe
rearfloor,whilesteeltubingrunsthrough
thesillsandwindscreenpillars.Asaresult,
theconvertiblehadonly 15 percentless
torsionalrigiditythanthecoupe,yet
weighedjust 100 kgmore,whileitsCdfigure
of 0. 39 wasonly 0. 01 higher,whichmeant
thatitsperformanceremainedsimilar.
FFFooollllllooowwwiiinnngggSSSiiirrrJJJooohhhnnnEEEgggaaannn’sssrrreeeqqquuueeesssttttttooo
makethecaraworld-beaterrr,itreceived
anelectrichood(theGermaaancontract
engineeringspecialistKarmaaannwas
responsiblefordesigningannndengineering
thehoodmechanism).Almooostunheardof
atthetime(theonlyotherEEEuropeansports
cartohaveanelectrichoodwasthePorsche
911 ),afterreleasingtwocatttcheseitherside
oftheroofrail,anelectricpppumpmotor

loweredtherooftofoldbehindtheseats.

AAAssswwwiiittthhhttthhheeeCCCaaabbbrrriiiooollleeettt,ttthhheeecccooonnnvvveeerrrtttiiibbbllleeewwwaaasss

initiallyatwo-seateeer,butaftertheroof’s

hydraulicpumpwasssrelocatedtotheboot,

abovethebattery,in 1993 ,itallowedfor

theadditionoftwooosmallrearseats.

Thecar’sdesignfelltoJaguar’sFergus

Pollock,and,ashetttoldJaguarWorldin

May 2017 ,hedidn’tttfindthetaskdifficult.

“Imadeafull-sizedddrawingoftheXJ-S

coupeandsimplytaaapedonthelinesIliked

fffooorrraaacccooonnnvvveeerrrtttiiibbbllleee.WWWWWeeessseeennntttttthhhiiisssiiinnnfffooorrrmmmaaatttiiiooonnn

XJSconvertible 4. 0

Ittookawhile,but whenthefull convertible

arrivedit wasahandsome,competentcar

toKarmann,whichcalculatedthehood

gggeeeooommmeeetttrrryyyssssooottthhhaaatttiiitttwwwooouuullldddfffooollldddcccooorrrrrreeeccctttlllyyy

withtheglllassrearwindow,butstillkeep

myoutlineee.”

TheXJ-SSSwasgivenafaceliftin

1991 .Themmmostobviousexternalpart

oftherefreeeshwasthemoremodern

rectangularlightclusters,whiletheoriginal

idiosyncrattticbarrel-typedialsinsidewere

replacedwwwithconventionalinstruments.

Thecar’snnnamealsochanged,although

ooonnnlllyyysssllliiiggghhhtttlllyyy:::ttthhheeehhhyyyppphhheeennniiinnnXXXJJJ-SSSwwwaaasss

droppedontherearbadge.