2003 XJ8 4.2 Sport

A heavy schedule sees Paul using the Project XJ8 to drive to photoshoots all over the country. But is the car reliable?

- Paul Walton

WANT TO know the hardest working member of the Jaguar World team? It’s not my coffee machine, Jim Patten’s keyboard or even Craig Cheetham’s toolbox. It’s our XJ8. Due to a hectic workload leading up to the recent festive season, I used the car for countless journeys all over the UK for photo shoots. Yet, like my Nespresso, it never let me down.

You may remember I bought the car for a mere £2,700 in March 2017 and, although it came with more flashing lights than a Seventies disco, I could see the potential. And, sure enough, after specialists Tasker & Lacy and Nene Jags fit parts supplied by our friends at SNG Barratt, plus a set of Vredestein tyres, the car is now transformed into the reliable and comfortable cruiser I knew it could be. I hope I’m not wrong about that when I leave my house in the East Midlands for Wake field one morning to visit the subject of this month’s specialist feature, Tennyson James. I needn’t have worried, though. The car behaves impeccably and is smooth and comfortable for the 90-mile journey. It’s fast too. Despite the odometer showing over 117,000 miles, the V8 feels as spirited and as eager as a newborn lamb and I constantly have to rein it in to avoid encroaching into licence-loosing speeds.