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We’ve featured quite a few British cars in this space, but of the cars we’ve covered so far, none match the compelling engineering and old-world English elegance of the original Jaguar XJ sedans. With their delicate styling touches and intimate, baroque interiors fairly dripping with wood and leather, the XJ6 and XJ12 are evocative of the great English motoring tradition of a more genteel time.

The charmingly outdated Jaguar sedans the XJ6 and XJ12 replaced had a firm rooting in English tradition, of course, but the new-for-1968 XJ sedans were really remarkable for their stylish and refined athleticism. The 1968 XJ6 sported a 4.2-liter inline six borrowed from the legendary E-type Jaguar that provided sports car thrust with smoothness that rivaled the buttery leather seats.

In 1972, Jaguar upped the ante by cramming the E-type’s massively complex but hugely torquey V-12 into the XJ. The turbine-like V-12 was just as smooth as the inline six, but provided enough thrust to push the XJ12 into the 150-mph neighborhood–serious speed for an early 1972 luxury sedan. Jaguar produced the XJ sedans with only minor facelifts for nearly two decades, and when they were finally phased out in the late 1980s in favor the XJ40-series cars, they were hoary but still hale.

  Today the Mk. I XJ6 and XJ12 might look a bit old-fashioned, but I think they look nearly as feline and feral as the E-Type. For the time, they were low-slung and aggressive without sacrificing their distinctive class, standing head and shoulders over their peers as a fast and dignified ride–like a four-wheeled Orient Express. Today’s Jaguar sedans borrow so heavily from the original XJ that they look like puffed-up caricatures of its purposeful greatness.

I’ve always wanted an XJ6 or, dare I dream, an XJ12. As I grow older, though, I’ve come to realize two things about my XJ lust. For one, as wonderful as it would be to own an XJ, I’m not really sure I’m worthy of it. I almost feel as if would be almost a letdown to allow anybody outside of, say, Alec Guinness or Ian Fleming to drive an XJ. For another, what I’d really like is to own and drive an XJ in 1968, when it towered over the rest of the world. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen.

One interesting trend with these early XJs, and the most likely to inflame a Jaguar purist with righteous indignation, is the frequent conversion of XJ sedans from Jaguar to small-block Chevrolet V-8 power. Here’s one example of a an XJ-Chevy, unfortunately without engine pictures. It’s an easy swap, evidently, and was a pretty compelling option for those weary of dealing with the typical Lucas electrical gremlins and an engine that baffled middle America mechanics. Still, while I admire the ingenuity, it almost feels like making bangers and mash with Oscar Meyer franks, doesn’t it?

These photos all come from Flickr–the top photo is from user cad_il, the second is from user dave_7, and the third image showing the V-12’s impossible complexity is from user Lou Danzinco.

–Chris H.