Jaguar World August 2022 Twin Test Fit for Royalty
TWIN TEST – Fit for royalty
The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was, in the eyes of many, the best car money could buy in the Seventies. But one of the few cars that ever truly challenged it in the eyes of the public was the XJ12 Series 1. Despite its lower price, was it as good? We test two cars fit for royalty to find out.
THERE ARE some phrases that those of us in the motoring press like to throw around like confetti. ‘King of the hot hatches’ is a good one, and has traditionally meant other cars wrestling it from the grasp of the Golf GTi or the Peugeot 205 GTi.
Best 4x4xfar is another one. But the one that motoring journalists have rarely questioned is the title of ‘The Best Car in the World’ – and back in the Seventies, the trophy was one that sat firmly in the cabinets at Crewe.
Words: Sam Skelton Photography: Paul Walton
Whether it was your thing or not, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow had, in the eyes of the motoring press, earned that accolade.
That’s not to say, however, that there were no challengers to the title. The Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3, for instance, a colossal V8 in the standard S-class shell. The Cadillac Fleetwood, colossal in every sense and truly the Cadillac of automobiles. And – from Rolls-Royce’s home turf – the Jaguar XJ12. Jaguar’s first serious entry into the luxury saloon market since the demise of the 420G, the XJ12 – especially in long-wheelbase form – took the talented XJ saloon and turned it into a world-class limousine, with more grace, more space and more pace than ever before. But was the XJ12 ever good enough to beat the Rolls-Royce at its own game? Was it ever, even briefly, the best car in the world?
Encompassing many innovations, the 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was also targeted at a new class of buyer. The first Rolls-Royce developed for the owner-driver was so popular at launch that potential owners – keen to drive them – would pay a premium over the list price for used examples if that meant that they could beat the waiting time. And that list wasn’t confined to traditional Rolls-Royce clientele. While people like Earl Spencer and Princess Margaret remained Rolls-Royce devotees, the Shadow also attracted a new breed of nouveau riche celebrity. John Lennon’s psychedelic Phantom kicked off a revolution, with names such as Keith Moon and Bernard Manning joining the queue. Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, a Silver Shadow was seen as a show of profligacy in a recession; the ultimate fate of which would be to don the white Dulux and silk ribbons of the wedding trade. This image has taken decades to shake off, but the Shadow is now accepted as a classic of standing.
Minor changes including a larger 6.75- litre V8 were introduced over the life of the Shadow, until its replacement with the Shadow II of 1977. This car had rubber bumpers, rack-and-pinion steering, a new dashboard and several other improvements under the skin. This would not only see out the Silver Shadow until its replacement in 1980 by the Silver Spirit, but its floorpan and drivetrain would also form the underpinnings of the new car. The Silver Shadow’s legacy would thus continue in production until 1998.
Jaguar’s XJ12 series wasn’t so much an all-new model as the final piece of a jigsaw that had been four years in the making. It completed the XJ range as launched in 1968 – the V12 engine having been developed for the car and only delayed owing to testing requirements.
The 420G had been retired in 1970, and the launch of the XJ12 in short- and long-wheelbase variants went some way towards Jaguar recapturing sales in the luxury limousine class. Styling was carried over from the XJ6, apart from a new grille and new ventilated steel wheels taken from the E-type. There was also a range-topping Vanden Plas model, trimmed at the coachbuilder’s Kingsbury facility in North London.
Built only in long-wheelbase form, fitted with a vinyl roof and trimmed to be a cut above, it was this car that perhaps offered the greatest challenge to the Silver Shadow on the market. After all, why buy the Rolls-Royce when for half the money you could have a car that was faster, leaner, still trimmed by hand, and just as British?
Later in 1973, the Series 1 gave way to the Series 2 – which from 1974 would lose the option of a short wheelbase for the saloon but gain a dainty pillarless coupe on the short-wheelbase floorpan – and this in turn would be replaced by the Series 3 for 1979. But while the XJ6 was replaced in 1986 by the new XJ40, the XJ12 would continue to 1991 and the Daimler Double-Six to 1992.
Two long-lived models, then, both with good grounds to claim the title of the best car in the world. But which will take the title? The Rolls-Royce we have on test has an interesting past. It was first supplied to Gerard Young CBE – chairman of the Tempered Spring Company in Sheffield. However, he also served as Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire. and it was in this capacity that the Rolls-Royce was procured. Its sole duty, according to his former secretary, was to provide suitable chauffeur transport should members of the royal family ever visit the county. It was used, accordingly, to transport Her Majesty the Queen to the 200th St Leger at Doncaster Racecourse in 1976, and the following year as part of her Silver Jubilee celebration.
Now owned by Ravin Naik, the Garnet Red car is used as semi-regular family transport and has made trips to France for family visits. Ravin, ironically, bought the car in 2019 when his search for a good XJ12 Coupe proved fruitless.
TGU 661L’s only private owner was Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who used it as her personal transport. Already a fan of Jaguar and an owner of a Mk VlIM, the Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas proved a natural choice of replacement. However, Her Majesty wished to remain loyal to the Jaguar brand – which is why this car was built as the world’s only Jaguar XJ12L Vanden Plas.
It was offered to Jaguar Heritage in 2002 on permanent loan upon her death, and has remained a part of the collection since. Finished in Claret, it also did without the Daimler’s chrome side trim and its chrome- ventilated wheels, sitting on the wheels of the basic XJ6 2.8 without chrome rimbellishers. It did get the Vanden Plas-spec vinyl roof, along with tinted rear windows to keep the sun away from royal necks. While we have seen no documentary evidence, it is likely that Her Majesty the Queen would have ridden in this car on a least one occasion as well as in the Rolls-Royce we have on test.
We’ve spoken about the design influences on the XJ6 in a recent issue, and there’s no point in retreading old ground. The extra length in the body is well-hidden by the vinyl roof – and while that does slightly spoil the simplicity of line that made the original XJ6 so beautiful, it balances out the heavier Daimler grille seen on the Vanden Plases that the public was offered. Inside are seats akin to those in Rolls-Royces, with pleating only on the central sections. They’re no bigger than the standard seats and yet the car seems more comfortable. Headroom is still tight in the back if you’re tall, but there’s plenty of legroom. Ahead of you is a standard XJ dash, albeit with a boxwood inlay to the walnut and with a gold V12 emblem on the centre console. While grey isn’t the colour
we’d have chosen for the leather. who are we to question royalty?
The Beige hide and Light Fawn headlining of the Rolls-Royce feel far more fitting to us. And while the wood and leather of the Vanden Plas are a cut above a standard XJ6, the trimmings inside this car are a cut above yet again. There’s a smell to an old Rolls-Royce – like a much-loved library in a stately home; the melding of the leather and the wood with none of the petrochemical plastics you might expect in lesser transport.
But while the seats are comfortable – and space in the back dwarfs that in the Jaguar the size of the seats does make the car feel perhaps a shade tighter for the larger driver than the Jaguar does.
Outside, there’s a great deal of extra chrome, particularly around the handmade radiator grille, and the square edges give the car a bigger visual impact. The Jaguar’s curved sides and haunches give the illusion of a smaller vehicle, but the slab-sided Shadow looks every inch of its seventeen feet. The surprise is in the simplicity of the shape – take away the grille and the headlamps and it’s contemporary Sixties’ thinking without embellishment. That modesty means that you don’t appreciate the size until you’re up close.
The size is hard to forget from behind the wheel, though. It’s imperious – you sit high looking down a sculpted bonnet, and you feel separate from other road users even in this age of high-riding SUVs.
Push the throttle and the prow rises – for it is a prow, the overall motion of a Shadow is more akin to a boat than a car. It feels cushioned as if by a bed of water, insulated from the road surface, though this float leads to impressive levels of roll in corners. It also contributes towards the feeling of size; between the way the car controls its body and the diameter of the steering wheel – a couple of inches too large for anything but gentle feeding twixt the fingertips – the Silver Shadow always feels like seventeen feet of very wide and tall car.
It’s not quick either – Rolls-Royce always declined to state power outputs in Britain, but in Germany (where it is a legal requirement) the Shadow was rated at just 190 bhp and 290 lb ft of torque. It’s not slow, but it doesn’t feel like there’s almost seven litres of engine there. The brakes are excellent; almost Citroen-sensitive, and they do a great job of stopping a car of this size. But for all Rolls-Royce’s assertions that this was a car for the owner-driver, it’s too big for anything other than stately progress down the average British country road.
Then again, this is a Rolls-Royce. Perhaps we’re expecting too much of it. Its primary job is to insulate the occupants from the outside world – and it accomplished this without a second thought. It’s quiet, comfortable, and relaxing. In a world where the only thing money can’t buy is time, a car which creates the sensation of slowing the world down may well offer the best luxury of the lot.
The Jaguar also slows down time, but in a very different way. Instead of insulating you from the world, it’s so capable that you forget the speeds you’re doing. Contemporary testers for Autocar reported that if it felt like 75 mph the odds were that you were doing 90, and fifty years on it’s easy to understand their point – even if we didn’t fancy repeating it.
Unlike the Rolls-Royce, put the XJ12 into a bend and it feels lithe, tight, it flows nicely – and yet while it’s behaving like a sports car the compliant ride is never compromised. It doesn’t quite float like the Silver Shadow, the body control is far tighter, but there’s also no hint of harshness, no under-springing or under-damping. The steering
The steering is lighter than that of the Rolls-Royce even when transmitted through a smaller steering wheel, and this car is far easier to drive quickly than the Shadow as a result. On uneven surfaces there’s far less weight transfer, and this imbues a sense of confidence that feels almost alien in a fifty-year-old large saloon. Unlike the XJ6 2.8 that we tested two issues ago, this XJ12 has the power to make use of that chassis, and the overall combination is mind-blowing for its age. Visibility is also second to none – especially at the back, where dainty D-pillars mean that there’s a near complete field of vision when turning the car around. None of this driving dynamism detracts from the XJ’s abilities to cosset those on the back seat. The seats are well-shaped, there’s acres of legroom, and the ride remains exemplary provided old Jeeves in the front isn’t making too freely with accelerator pedal. It might have a drinking problem even alongside that of the Rolls-Royce, but overall the package is a far more complete one for the owner-driver or those who require occasional chauffeuring.
Rolls-Royce fans are not going to like this. But the Silver Shadow, by the early Seventies, was no longer the best car in the world. Because Jaguar had outdone it with the XJ12 and Daimler Double-Six.
The Silver Shadow is a lovely car – a car of which Britain should be rightly proud, one which shows the very best that our craftsmen can make and one which shows that there was still a place for the handbuilt car at the top of the tree in the Seventies. But put it against the XJ12 and it feels almost anachronistic. It has many positive qualities. It looks right, it smells right, and there’s an imperiousness that is lacking in the Jaguar. The rear seat is also palatial, and when both cars are viewed strictly from the rear quarters the Rolls-Royce is an easy victor.
But the Jaguar manages to meld an almost equal ride with a litheness and poise that’s not seen in many grand tourers of the era, let alone luxury saloons. You can sit back and let the chauffeur do the work – or you can give him the night off and go out for some fun. The Silver Shadow may be a superlative car in which to be driven, but the back seat is the best in the house. In the Jaguar the best place is behind the wheel.
The Rolls-Royce offers a compromise that means that owner-drivers have a nicer time than they did in older models without sacrificing the Rolls-Royce virtues of fine living. And we applaud that, But the Jaguar doesn’t feel like a compromise at all – especially when you factor in the £5,439 list price of a Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas against the £10,550 Rolls-Royce.
There’s more. When driving this XJ12, I couldn’t think of any car that had changed the game so significantly since. Subsequent XJs feel as if they’re chasing past glories, while no other manufacturer has created a car which offers limousine comfort and sports car prowess in the same package. There’s a case to make for the XJ12 Series 1 not only as the best car in the world in 1972, but the best car the world has ever seen.
Thanks to: Jaguar Heritage for the use of the XJ12 (www.jaguarheritage.com) and Ravin Naik for his Silver Shadow
1972 XJ12 Vanden Plas | 1976 Silver Shadow | |
Engine | 5,343 cc V12 | 6,750 cc V8 |
Power | 253 bhp | 190 bhp |
Torque | 302 lb ft | 290 lb ft |
0-60- mph | 7.4 secs | 10.6 secs |
Top Speed | 145 mph | 120 mph |
Economy | 12 mpg | 13 mpg |
Transmission | 3-spd auto | 3-spd auto |
Price new | £5,439 (Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas) | £10,550 |
Value Now | £5k-35k | £5-40k |