JAGUAR

Mark 2

The Jaguar Mark 2 is a mid-sized luxury sports saloon built from late 1959 to 1967 at Jaguar's Coventry factory in England, with the run-out 240 and 340 versions continuing into 1969. It was a comprehensive update of the earlier 2.4 and 3.4 Litre cars, now retrospectively called the Mark 1, and the changes transformed the car. The Jaguar Mark 2 gained a wider rear track for better handling, far larger windows that flooded the elegant cabin with light, and a thinner, brighter chrome window framing that gave the body its timeless, graceful profile. It perfectly embodied Sir William Lyons' famous advertising slogan, Grace, Space and Pace. The real magic lay under the bonnet, where the top Jaguar Mark 2 3.8 used the same 3.8-litre XK twin-cam straight-six as the E-Type, giving around 220 horsepower and a top speed of 125 mph, making it for a time the fastest four-door saloon in the world. That pace made the Jaguar Mark 2 a favourite of both bank robbers and the police who chased them, and racing driver John Coombs developed a famous series of lightened, tuned competition versions. Decades later the Jaguar Mark 2 found a whole new audience as the car of fictional television detective Inspector Morse, sealing its place in popular culture. Beautifully styled, fast and surprisingly usable, the Jaguar Mark 2 remains one of the most beloved classic Jaguars.