Spotted - 1996 6.0 V12 Coupe - auction

[AndyF]

Hello all

Just browsing the auctions and came across this

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/auction ... v12-VnPNK8

A Feb 1996 car (N725 OGH), in Sapphire Blue with the 32 spoke alloys, later seats/leather and V12 badges on the wings. 70,000 miles. Guide price £18k - £25k. Interestingly, still fitted with the Teves III brake system (so not having the 1995.25MY update to the conventional vacuum assist brake system). So presumably another one built before the cut off and then finding its way out of the factory....

From the pictures and docs looks good, with some potential to make it look very special.

No connection to me but it looks like it deserves a good home. Is it known to anyone on here?

AF

[ptjs1]

Andy,

It's a lovely looking car, but it's much earlier than Feb 96. I think the sellers are being quite disingenuous talking about only 2 V12 Coupes being built in 1996 (there was only 1 anyway), and how this is one of the very last. I can tell from the pics that this car was built almost 2 years before that. It was built in either May or June 1994!

I know it's buyer beware but someone should correct the auction house.

Cheers

Paul

[AndyF]

Hi Paul

You beat me to it! I should have known that your eagle eyes would have spotted it!

Using some information from possibly one of your other posts, I think it is a 1994.75MY car, as it has the integral headrests in the seats, the later leather, the round leather gearknob etc (so slightly later than mine, which doesn't have these and was built in March 1994). So your idea that it is was built in May or June 1994 seems quite possible.

I guess the only excuse the auction house has is that it is listed as 1st registered on 2nd Feb 1996. The V12s really did hang around at the factory for a long time in 1994 - 1996!

Oh - and it does have the later 20 spoke alloys, not the mythical 32 spoke ones I came up with!

AF

[ptjs1]

Andy,

You're absolutely right, it's a 1994.75 car! And those 20-spoke diamond-cut are my favourite late XJS wheel! As you've noticed, lots of giveaways that it's not a Celebration spec.

I'm pretty sure it will have been built in the 1st or 2nd week of June 1994. In fact there's a marker on the car which tells you which month it was built, but it's not visible in the pics.

The annoying thing is that the auction write-up may well influence an unknowing buyer that it's a much later car. They are wrong on a number of fronts, eg to say that by 96 nearly all V12s were LHD and built for the US is completely wrong. The US stopped taking any V12 XJS at all by early 1995.

Still a nice car, but not as described! I've contacted the auction house.

Paul