The following pictures were sent to us by UK-based reader Saif Rashid and they are absolutely superb. They document the restoration of a gutted and forgotten Jaguar XJS to a showroom, or possibly higher, level of quality. The XJS is one of those odd examples which you sometimes see in the automotive world where a restored example of the car has a very good chance of being generally better than the original, and this is certainly the case here.

The XJS was built as a replacement for the E-Type, but was more grand tourer than outright sports car, and was also cursed with the misfortune of being built during the towering heights of British Leyland's management incompetence. The XJS was therefore a good idea that often suffered from poor execution. Good original examples do exist, but inconsistencies in build quality dogged the car for its whole existence. Today, the loving attention being given to restored examples of the XJS is finally giving the car a second chance at life with the advantage of proper build quality.