As some of you may know from earlier posts, my dad had an XJ40 (1991 XJ6) for a couple of years when I was growing up. Around 4 years ago now, I bought a 1992 Sovereign in the same colour (diamond blue) and with help from the forum, secretly began a rolling restoration programme as a surprise for his 65th birthday. We love it and mainly use it for day trips at weekends and special occasions. It's most recent outing was on Father's Day. I replaced the headlining a few weeks ago and it's just passed it's third MOT in our ownership.
Around 18 months ago, I was on my way to an appointment for work when I saw an XJ40 in a similar colour to ours, parked in a public car park opposite a row of shops. They're a pretty rare sight, particularly round here, so I stopped and left a note on the windscreen. A few weeks later, I got an email from the owner who at that time, worked in the newsagents across the road. I dropped in to see him one day - he's owned the car for almost twenty years! I explained our story and we agreed we'd try to get the two cars together which we did around this time last year (see picture).
A few weeks ago, the owner emailed me to let me know he was getting ready to retire and was planning to sell the car. The car needs some work and he was really keen for it to go to someone who appreciated XJ40's so he wondered if I'd like to buy it - so I did! It's a really nice, original example: 2.9 auto (595xxx), arctic blue, doeskin leather with just under 80k miles, sunroof (no rot) and lattice wheels. He was able to give me the owners handbook and RAC book, but unfortunately, he's misplaced the wallet and book pack. I have some spare bits and pieces of literature from trawling the scrap yards, but I think the correct handbook could be the green one with the growler on the front - perhaps someone could set me straight on that.
