Year: 1994 Make: Jaguar Model: Sovereign (6.0 litre) Registration: L908 SGW Chassis No: SAJJKKLS3AP688167 Engine No: 8C12461SC Odometer: 73,100km The XJ40 is Jaguar’s difficult second album; after the lithe XJ series cars, the angular XJ40 of the late eighties and early nineties found few friends.

Code-named ‘XJ81’, the fact that Jim Randle, the XJ40’s chief engineer, deliberately made the engine bay too narrow to fit the time-served Rover V8 engine meant the outgoing Series III V12 remained in production long after the six-cylinder cars had been culled from the firm’s catalogue.

However, contrary to the predictions of Jaguar’s senior managers, demand for larger engine’s persisted, which meant extensive revisions were needed to shoehorn in the wonderful six-litre V12 engine.

It took until 1993 before the V12 engine arrived and it was so powerful, its installation caused yet another headache.

Jaguar’s owners at the time, didn’t have a gearbox strong enough to cope with the V12’s tor...