Welcome to the website dedicated to the Jaguar XJC

Phil Evans - My Coupe - 1976 Jaguar 5.3C

As well as being owner of this web site, I'm presently the XJC Register Secretary of the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia here in New South Wales.

I've been a long time XJC admirer, and after several forays into Jaguar ownership, including a Series l XJ6 and a Daimler 2.5 (great car, wish I still had it), my interest in the XJC was rekindled one night when I saw an XJC for sale on Parramatta Road. I came across a car sales yard that had a BRG coupe for sale, out of my price range though. I then started the inevitable path to coupe ownership, and began checking the for sale columns.

I found my car not long after, and it had been languishing in a repossession yard for some months, out in the weather. After a mechanical examination, which was fairly critical and should have turned me off it, I blindly went ahead and bought my XJC. To make matters worse, in some eyes at least, it was Greensand in colour. It's mine and I start the trip home. The motor starts to splutter and begs for fuel, well after all, it is a V12 I've been feeding it ever since.

That was in 1992, and many years and dollars later, it's in very good mechanical shape, but I'd like to do a repaint and redo the interior. We've done a quite few trips in the coupe now - it's been to Melbourne, Noosa and Canberra a few times, as well as the usual club runs around Sydney. It's great driving, although that's becoming more expensive these days.

Tony Williams

with Phil Evans, was the co-owner and co-author of this website. Tony relinquished his share of the site a couple of years ago, and has moved overseas from Australia. He has also given up all involvement with Jaguars. I regarded Tony as the moving force behind this web site, and the majority of work and ideas you see here were his, I think he did a great job. In addition to all the effort he put in here, Tony was also once the XJC Register Secretary for The Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia.

Tony is an ex Liverpool (UK) lad and a football fanatic who has travelled the world. In his spare time he loves to follow the fortunes of his team Everton, listen to The Beatles and surf the net.

Tony related... "I had gone to the Monday night prestige car auctions at Pickles in Kingsgrove. I had no intention of buying anything, just wanted to get a handle on the prices. It was 5 minutes to the start of the auction and my mouth was open like a goldfish at feeding time, as I spotted an XJC in the line up.

It was a Jaguar 4.2 auto coupe, squadron blue with a very badly faded Russet red interior. Chrome wire wheels completed the picture. The auction started... I pulled my wallet out to get the $1000 cash deposit that is required at Pickles. My grubby fingers counted out $35... no coupe for me tonight, I thought.

I hung around waiting for the coupe to be auctioned off. My heart now matched the feeling of emptiness I had in my wallet. I had imagined that it would go for around 16-18,000 dollars and the bidding would be fierce and hotly contested. Not so, there were only three bids and the coupe was passed in, failing to meet reserve at $8,500. I drove home kicking myself that I had not taken the $1000 deposit just in case.

Three days later I spotted a coupe for sale out at Campbelltown, 'Squadron Blue 4.2 coupe with chrome wire wheels, $11,500 ono. No, it couldn't be the same one, surely. A drive out to Campbelltown confirmed that it was. $10,000 and a handshake later I was the proud owner of my first XJC. I had owned five Jaguars before this one, but somehow it felt like my first. I drove it home to Randwick, grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat. This was the start of a romance that would burn bright to this day".