JAGUAR

XJ Coupe

A 10,426 car production run of two-door XJ coupés with a pillarless hardtop body called the XJ-C was built between 1975 and 1978. The car was originally shown at the London Motor Show in October 1973,[14] but it subsequently became clear that it was not ready for production[citation needed], and the economic troubles unfolding in the western world at that time seemed to have reduced any sense of urgency about producing and selling the cars:[citation needed] it was reported[where?] that problems with window sealing delayed production. XJ coupés finally started to emerge from Jaguar show-rooms some two years later.[citation needed] The coupé was based on the short-wheelbase version of the XJ. The coupé's elongated doors were made out of a lengthened standard XJ front door (the weld seams are clearly visible under the interior panels where two front door shells were grafted together with a single outer skin)[citation needed]. A few XJ-C cars were modified by Lynx Cars and Avon into a convertible body style with a retractable canvas top, but this was not a factory product. Lynx conversions (16 in total) did benefit from powered tops. Both six and twelve-cylinder models were offered, 6,505 of the former and 1,873 of the latter were made. Even with the delay, these cars suffered from water leaks and wind noise[citation needed]. The delayed introduction, the labour-intensive work required by the modified saloon body, the higher price than the four-door car, and the early demise promulgated by the new XJ-S, all ensured a small production run.[citation needed] All coupés came with a vinyl roof as standard. Since the coupé lacked B-pillars, the roof flexed enough that the paint used by Jaguar at the time would develop cracks.[citation needed] More modern paints do not suffer such problems, so when coupés are repainted it is advisable to remove the vinyl.[citation needed] Today many XJ-Cs thus no longer have their vinyl roof, which also minimises the threat of roof rust. Some owners also modified their XJ-C by changing to Series III bumpers.[15] This lifted the front indicators from under the bumper and provided built in rear fog lights. A small number of Daimler versions of the XJ-C were made. One prototype of the Daimler Vanden Plas XJ-C was also made, however this version never went into production.