The Jaguar XJ6 Twenty Six.

Some background information about the Jaguar XJ6 Twenty Six, my ownership and my mission to get one home!

The Jaguar Twenty Six was the brainchild of Guy Salmon and his brother Mickey. In 1984 the Messrs Salmon found there was a gap in the market for a lower cost LWB Jaguar Saloon and following on from the success of the XJS Jubilee model that made the Guy Salmon dealership the biggest seller of the XJS model in the UK in 1985, they decided to produce an extra-long wheelbase XJ6. The Guy Salmon Twenty Six was so named due to it being 26 inches longer than a standard Jaguar XJ6.

Only four XJ6 Twenty Six’s were made because Mr Salmon knew that there was a new long awaited Jaguar model on the horizon (the XJ40 introduced in October 1986). The coachbuilders Glenfrome of Bristol were tasked with converting the four new Jaguar XJ6’s into Guy Salmon ‘Twenty Six’ form. The build was of top quality as Guy Salmon then, as now, will only endorse and sell high-quality products (source: David Edwards, Head of Business, Guy Salmon, Thames Ditton). Jaguar were not involved in the project but approval was given and the normal new-car warranty and guarantee conditions applied.

The original literature pictures, consisting of a 4 page gatefold brochure

Left: Twenty Six Optional extras price-list. Right: Badges for the rear and front wings that I had custom made to be as close to the originals as possible.

In 1985 the list price of a standard XJ6 with automatic transmission was about £16,500 including taxes. For the Twenty Six model there were a large number of extra options available from a fridge and television with video, to a tissue dispenser and rear intercom. The actual body conversion to Twenty Six was priced at £11,174 plus £1,676.10 VAT.

This car, believed to be the only surviving example of the four cars produced, was originally supplied in Grosvenor brown with biscuit interior. According to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust the car was made on the 27th August 1984 and was supplied to the Guy Salmon dealership on the 31st August 1984. The first owner shown on the heritage certificate is the same gentleman that the car was first registered to on the 15th May 1986. On the first vehicle registration document the car is described as JAGUAR XJ6 TWENTYSIX. It is assumed that the gap from the date the car was delivered to the date it was first registered with the DVLC is due to the conversion process taking about 20 months (which does seem rather long). The original invoice, kindly provided by the son of the original owner shows that the car had 1012 miles on the clock when it was sold, it also reveals that the pricing for conversion/options shown on the chart above was not strictly adhered to and that the original owner paid a total of £12.151.99 for the conversion with air-con and other optional extras outlined below:

·         Manual Division

·         Tandem rear mounted Air conditioning for rear seat passengers

·         Additional Stereo/cassette in rear compartment

·         Forward facing occasional seats x2

·         Two rear headrests in standard leather

The second owner of the vehicle, a Professor from Exeter, took ownership in 1991. The car seems to have been hired out as a wedding car in the Eastbourne area in the 1990s (I was contacted by a man who remembered that his cousin was taken to and from her wedding in it) and it is assumed that this use is the reason that the exterior and interior colours were changed to white. Road tax records indicate that the car was taxed and road legal up to the end of 1997. It is believed that for whatever reason the vehicle was laid up during 1997 and didn’t move until it was purchased by its third owner in 2015. During the second owner’s ownership the cherished registration KBD 181 was assigned to the car, perhaps to make it appear to be a more current model (Jaguar sold the XJ12 in series 3 form until 1993).

The third owner was a Jaguar specialist who purchased the vehicle in January 2015. He put the vehicle through an MOT to see what it would fail on – and after 18 years of sitting around, including about 2 years outside in the elements (according to the previous owner) the list of failure items was quite long! He decided that due to work load and personal reasons that he would sell it on, and as I’d already seen pictures of the car and was the first to show an interest, he sold it to me.

For the MOT under my ownership the car required extensive welding, here are just a few before, during and after pictures of the work that was carried out, mainly to the lower part of the car to make it structurally sound enough to pass the UK MOT test. The current mileage shown is just under 42,000, which I feel is probably genuine given the history of the car and the fact that it has spent more of its life off the road than on it.

There was a lot more to do than is shown in the images above. Once the work was done and as my intention was to take the car to Germany, the cherished registration was sold and the DVLA re-assigned the original registration to the vehicle. After so many years off the road I had a full service carried out in England, including a new alternator and four new winter tyres before attempting to drive it 700 miles to Eastern Germany. There were a few failed attempts to collect the car, mainly due to silly things going wrong, like the indicators failing and the (new) alternator belt snapping! Eventually, in August 2016 I managed to drive the car 70 miles to Dartford before it broke down by the river Thames crossing causing me to abandon that attempt, too. It was recovered and diagnosed as having an inoperative fuel pump. There were also a number of other fuel related issues relating to the dual fuel tank system and the way it switches from one tank to the other. The left tank had been bypassed completely for whatever reason, but despite this, the return valve to the left tank was stuck open which led to the right tank becoming empty and the redundant left tank filling and pressurising with petrol. These issues were rectified and at the same time the fuel gauge and speedo were made to function again. I knew that the heater didn’t work, so this was also investigated but it was found that the heater matrix behind the dashboard had leaked at some stage and had been bypassed. It’s a big job to change, so I left it like that and made sure I packed extra warm clothing.

I collected the car again and it still had fuelling issues when the engine was running from the now plumbed in left tank. I decided to stay switched to the right tank for the whole journey back to Germany, even though that meant half the range and logically twice the number of visits to petrol stations!

I set off from Kent on the 24^th November 2016. That morning I noticed some stiffness to the steering and while waiting for the ferry at Dover another motorist brought a leak of fluid to my attention. At the next safe place to stop, waiting for the ferry to France, I looked underneath but could see nothing. I assumed that it was likely to be power steering fluid so hoped I’d be able to buy some and top up en-route. I got to Brussels and made my usual food stop at the Groot Bijgaarden services. By then the power steering was almost non-existent so I ventured into the Brussels suburbs to find some power steering fluid. A kind Francophone at a petrol station drew me a map and I was able to find a motorists shop. I topped up the fluid reservoir in the busy car park and left via the route with the least speed bumps (which I discovered where high enough and fat enough to scrap the bottom of the car). I got about 100 yards and a dull ‘snap’ and the illumination of the battery light indicated that the alternator belt (another new one) was now laying on a Belgian road and was no longer wrapped around my alternator. It was still light and I knew that the alternator belt only drove the alternator, so theoretically the battery should provide enough power for all the important things like indicators and brake lights, at least until darkness when the headlights would be needed and would run the battery down a lot quicker. I also had a jump start battery with me, so knew that I could at least start the car a few times.

I continued towards Germany. As it got dark I left it to the last minute to turn the lights on and noticed straight away that the battery voltage level started to drop. On the border near Aachen I saw signs for the border services/customs etc and saw it also included a hotel. By then the battery volts were between 10v and 11v so I stopped there with headlights and interior lighting becoming very dim.

The next day I called around in Aachen and was put on to a British car specialist who said he would certainly be able to find a belt to fit and would be willing to do it there and then! My German break down cover sent a recovery truck and within minutes I was at the workshop and the man had his head under the bonnet. He was indeed able to find a belt of the correct dimensions and within an hour I was on my way again. The rest of the journey should have taken 5-6 hours, but ended up taking 10 due to horrific traffic and a very nervous 2hrs 30mins sitting in a cold car going nowhere.  

It was all ok in the end. The temp gauge behaved and everything apart from the heating worked as it should. The car drives very well, gearbox is good, brakes are very good (I had to make an emergency stop), steering obviously needs looking at, but when there is fluid there it feels fine. I did have to top up the engine oil but the coolant stayed blue and free of contaminants, so I suspect the old engine is probably burning a little oil. It felt safe at high speed, including a couple of short bursts of almost 100mph.

And here are a few current pictures, in Saxony just before I packed it away indoors for the winter. In Spring next year I’ll have a closer look at it and will no doubt invest more time and money in it to start bringing it back to its former glory.

Thank you to David Edwards, current Head of Business at Guy Salmon Thames Ditton, Phil Mott, also of Guy Salmon Thames Ditton, who originally carried out a PDI on one of the Twenty Sixes and also provided information. Thanks also to Mary O'Rourke of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.