Jaguar XK 5.0 Convertible

In 1961 the original E-Type rolled into the world, and Enzo Ferrari reportedly called it the most beautiful car ever made. That is quite a compliment coming from your greatest rival. Ever since, Jaguar has had a habit of occasionally producing something that makes you glance out of the corner of your eye, turn back for a second look, and then mutter that you really ought to start earning a bit more.

The XK from this generation is precisely that kind of car. Penned by Ian Callum, the man who would later shape the F-Type, this is one of the most beautiful four-and-a-half-metre machines Coventry has ever waved through. Long, low, muscular without shouting. A grand tourer in the very finest British tradition: you climb in at Brighton and step out again in the South of France, with the same fresh eyes and a dashboard full of walnut to admire.

But the real fun sits under that long bonnet. Because this is no ordinary XK. This is the 5.0 V8 with supercharger. 385 bhp of aluminium violence, which behaves itself nicely as long as you do too, but which turns into a growling, whistling, roaring spectacle the moment your right foot gets serious. The supercharger wails away in the background the way only a British blower can: civilised, but with bad intentions. A sort of butler who invites you for tea and then drags you off to the racetrack.

I have always had a soft spot for this approach. Where the Germans hand you power with a spreadsheet and a graph attached, a Jaguar does it with a wink and a handshake. None of it quite adds up on paper, and that is exactly why it works perfectly. Drop the roof, and that V8 plays its entire repertoire without any filtered intermediary. It is not a crescendo that requires an annual season ticket to the Royal Albert Hall, but it comes close.

Right, back to the car in question. This 2009 XK Convertible is finished in Emerald Fire Pearl, a colour that sounds dull on paper and in reality plays exactly the right side of the line between green and dark, with a hint of depth to it. Inside, the usual Jaguar orgy of leather, and staggered 19-inch wheels wearing Dunlop summer rubber, 245 up front and 275 at the rear. That rear rubber is not there for show; all that power has to go somewhere, after all.

What makes this particular XK so pleasing is the paperwork. I have gone through the German service booklet line by line, and it reads like the diary of a car that was taken seriously. Neatly stamped from 2010 onwards at Avalon Premium Cars in Munich, the official Jaguar dealer on Moosacher Straße, and later faithfully maintained by C&C PremiumCars, a specialist Jaguar and Land Rover partner.

Twelve service events, tidily in a row, with brake fluid, coolant and oil changes at the moments they were due. This is not a car that was forgotten under a tarpaulin somewhere and only shaken awake for the sale.

What you get here is a car that can do two things at once that usually refuse to be combined. It can spend hours civilly devouring miles with the roof up and the seat heating on, while your wife or partner drifts quietly off to sleep. And it can, when the road is empty and the sun is out, turn into something that deposits you back home grinning, with a heart rate that is just a touch too high. Few cars under sixty grand pull off that splits so elegantly.

The XK has never been the flashy choice. While everyone was looking towards Stuttgart and Munich, Jaguar quietly built a grand tourer with more class than most of its rivals combined. And now, years later, it still stands there as though it knew all along.

Enzo was right about the E-Type. This XK is its well-dressed grandchild, and the blood does not lie.

Special features

• 5.0 V8 with supercharger, 385 bhp aluminium powerplant
• 2009 Convertible in Emerald Fire Pearl metallic
• Staggered 19-inch wheel setup
• Dunlop summer tyres (245/40/19 front, 275/35/19 rear), 8.2 mm tread all round
• Full leather interior
• Complete German service booklet, twelve stamped service events
• Maintained by official Jaguar dealer and specialist partner
• Design by Ian Callum, later the father of the F-Type
• Margin car
• Grand tourer that takes both motorway and mountain pass with equal pleasure

With factor 50 still on my arm

Nick Slinger

Copywriter · HooG Selections