A CAR OF DREAMS – JAGUAR 420G

1980 - a Sunday afternoon in a small village pub somewhere in Hampshire. For my ten-year-old self, the atmosphere can be summarised in the following words: locally branded cola, obscure forms of potato crisps, Space Invaders and stultifying, Tony Hancock-style boredom. Car-spotting provided the only relief for parked outside, a vision of automotive beauty, with a lithe silhouette and a dramatic radiator grille – a silver-blue metallic Jaguar 420G. Forty-four years later, the Regency Red example recently sold by Anglia Car Auctions is equally tempting.

The 420G was the final incarnation of the remarkable Jaguar Mk. X, which at nearly 6ft 5in was the widest car made in the UK on its debut in 1961. Autocar thought it “one of the proudest products of the British motor industry” and across the Atlantic Road & Track reported, “No other car of the size and type gives a better combination of comfort, handling and silence.”

By late 1964, Jaguar updated the Mk. X with a 4,235cc engine, Marles Variomatic power steering and a new all-synchromesh manual gearbox for the manual version. An equally impressed Autocar thought: “From practically every point of view it is a car which calls for superlatives in its assessment.” In October 1966, Jaguar rebranded the Mk. X as the 420G (for ‘Grand’), with a divided radiator grille, padded fascia, side indicator repeaters, and chrome side stripes. Buyers could also specify an array of duotone paint finishes.

Browns Lane promoted the 420G with vast amounts of utter snobbery. Jaguar gloriously headlined the 1967 brochure “Your car Sir!” for their flagship saloon was “built around the company director”. Yes, “Give word to your chauffeur and glide noiselessly away”. However, “Don’t let your chauffeur have all the fun. Get into the driver’s seat”, while Jaguar hoped the owner would “enjoy a picnic or two on the back seat”.

The last 420G left the factory in 1970, and Jaguar sold it alongside the XJ6 for nearly two years. At first sight, the J registration suffix on the Anglia’s example looks faintly incongruous, as the Mk. X appears to hail from an earlier era. The cabin, with its picnic tables and vanity mirrors for the rear passengers, the separate starter button on the fascia, and the ‘Leaping Cat’ bonnet mascot, wonderfully blends post-war respectability and loucheness.

And that was the impression of my younger self, even if I could not have expressed it. From memory, the 420G I saw in 1980 wore a G registration, but it seemed older; a car from those Rank comedies screened on Southern Television. Even now, a member of the Mk. X family evokes images of Mayfair dandies with Laurence Harvey quiffs and overtaking Singer Vogues on the M1.

To quote a Telegraph article, the big Jaguar belonged to a “lost world of chorus girls, black market gin and looking out for a police Wolseley in the rear-view mirror”. Plus, according to Jaguar, the boot had enough room for “seven dozen of claret”.

With Thanks To - https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/