Jaguar by Graham Robson

Author:Graham Robson [Robson, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jaguar
ISBN: 9780747812609
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Even after its final restyling, the XJS was still selling well, and needed only high-quality advertising to keep it in the public eye.

XJ6, V12 ENGINES AND BRITISH LEYLAND

FROM 1966, when Jaguar joined forces with BMC, until 1984, when it broke free from the corporate wreckage of the nationalised British Leyland to become independent once again, the company had a turbulent existence. Although the brand survived, the clientele stayed loyal, and the cars were always fast, stylish and stimulating, there were times when the future looked very doubtful indeed.

When Jaguar joined up with BMC to form BMH, it lost much of its ability to plan for its own future. First, more or less at the British government’s insistence, BMH linked up with Leyland in 1968 to form British Leyland. That colossus, which originally included brands as disparate as Jaguar and MG, Triumph and AEC trucks, Austin and Scammell, suffered seven years of corporate, financial and industrial relations strife before having to be ‘rescued’ (in other words taken into state ownership) in 1975.

As the government then applied more and more policies that tended to render famous brands nameless (and powerless), Jaguar gradually lost individuality, and finally the Browns Lane premises became known merely as the ‘British Leyland Large Car Plant’. Even so, in the six years that remained for Sir William Lyons, who finally elected to retire soon after he had reached his seventieth birthday in 1971, he made sure that he would always be one of the most important and powerful executives in the corporation, and that by his every action Jaguar would hang on to its independence.

In those years, although almost every action – public and private – of British Leyland tended to be chaotic rather than logical, Sir William ensured that Jaguar’s product policy, and its development, would be independent of most influences. Even before BMH had been founded in 1966, he had laid the foundations for Jaguar’s short- and medium-term future – the plan being to evolve a versatile family of saloon and sporty cars, allied to the birth of a brand-new V12 engine.

He also kept a careful eye on what the other brands within the corporation were doing and wanted to do. In particular, it was Sir William who saw to the killing off of a putative Rover executive saloon (coded P8), and an extremely promising Rover sports car project (P6B/P9) – both of which might have harmed various Jaguar programmes. On the other hand, he also made sure that where Jaguar needed funds, and other resources, to bring his new products to the market place, it would get them, while being careful to preserve Jaguar, Daimler, Radford and Browns Lane as his personal technical and commercial empire.

First seen in 1968, the carefully styled, engineered and developed XJ6 was central to all those plans. Not only did this car, which had a completely new chassis/platform, but which retained the XK engine and the associated running gear, eventually replace every single one of Jaguar’s (and Daimler’s) existing saloons,

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