Location: Coventry - England, and we are in the month of January 1973.  Momentum for the 'new' Jaguar coupe is gathering and four prototypes are hand built at Browns Lane.  One of them was LHD chassis number: 2G50002, the other three being RHD.  This coupe had the extended split and joint doors, which only those first few coupes of 1973 had.  It is also one of the few early V12 coupes to have carburettors which identifies it as an early prototype XJC.  From March 1973 14 more pre-production coupes were made, prior to the debut of the XJC at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1973.  

It was originally finished in Old English White with a Russet Red trimmed interior.  For approximately two years chassis # 2G50002, was kept on site at Browns Lane and used to transport people and goods around the Jaguar factory.  On the 29th January 1975 Jaguar XJC #2G50002 was sent to to the Vanden Plas Coachworks company, in Kingsbury London.  At Vanden Plas this Jaguar was converted to a Daimler with additional Vanden Plas improvements.  Although it was now essentially a Daimler Vanden Plas, the car was still adorned with Jaguar chassis plates. 

At the VDP coachworks the coupe was completely gutted, repainted Regency Red, and the Russet Red interior gave way to a Chamois leather finish.  Chamois was the most popular leather finish of all the Vanden Plas saloon cars.  The coupe was given the usual VDP leather interior finish, with quite a few unique finishing touches.  Stephen Gibson from Supercat Jaguar Spares in Manchester England, seems to remember that it had fold-down walnut picnic tables, fitted to the rear of the front seats.  Walnut wood fillets were also fitted to the door trims and also in the rear passenger side trim.  Armrests, pockets and panels are all different from the normal coupes.  In the photographs gallery below, you can see the dashboard which was typical for a Series I Vanden Plas saloon car.  Notice the intarsia and the eyeball socket type cold air inlets.  The lower chrome finisher to the rear pillar is also unique to this coupe, thicker like the trim normally found on the four-door saloons fitted with a vinyl roof.  This trim had a larger centre section with a swaged circle, fitted with a distinctive ' VP ' logo.  See photograph below.   
 

After this 'Daimler Vanden Plas' make-over for the Jaguar, the experimental coupe was presented to the Jaguar bean counters for evaluation.  In his book, " Vanden Plas Coachbuilders, " author Brian Smith, on page #287 makes mention of this fact, " an experimental Vanden Plas Double Six 2-door coupe with left hand drive, was shown to the hierarchy but was not adopted as a basis for production, and has since been disposed of."   It is thought that the Managing Director of VDP kept the coupe for his own personal use.  It was first road registered in the UK on the 19th September 1978, and had three owners in the United Kingdom, one of them  lived on the South Coast, before it was bought by a gentleman from Denmark in 1985.

Chassis #2G50002 stayed in Denmark for the next five years before it was purchased by its current owner Hans Peter Bruggemann.   Under Hans Peter's ownership, this rare coupe has won Concours d'Elegance awards, and regularly attends Display days across Europe.  It first came to this writers attention, after being photographed at an All British Display Day in Germany, and more recently, was seen in Interlaken, September 2001, at the 25th anniversary event of the Jaguar Drivers Club of Switzerland.  We think it is fantastic that such a rare classic vehicle is used for pleasure and car enthusiasts get to view it at club events.   

 Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas Gallery