This car was used by Jaguar as a press car, and while it was originally blue, it was later re-painted in the Union Flag colour scheme as a replica of the car used in the Austin Powers film “Goldmember”, before being handed over to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.

After twenty-one years in production, the last XJS cars were built in 1996. Their replacement was the XK8 sports car, first introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1996, and sometimes also referred to by its product code of X100. The new XK8 was a typical Jaguar, combining tradition with innovation. The inspiration for the elegant design clearly came from the style of classic Jaguar sports cars of the past, notably the E-type of the 1960s, but interpreted in a modern manner. The car was styled by Fergus Pollock, working under the late Geoff Lawson. The Project Director was the engineer Bob Dover, who went on to become Jaguar’s Chairman.

Under the bonnet lay the first Jaguar V8 engine. Although the Daimler sister marque had made some excellent V8s in the 1960s, and although a Jaguar V8 design had been under consideration at the same time, this was the first Jaguar production car to be fitted with this type of engine. As used in the XK8, capacity was originally 4 litres, later increased to 4.2 litres. The AJ8 engine was of all-aluminium construction, with two overhead camshafts per bank and 32 valves producing 290bhp.

The Austin Powers films starting with International Man of Mystery in 1997 were comedy spoofs of classic spy thrillers. A Jaguar E-type had been used in the second film and when the third Austin Powers film Goldmember was made in 2002, the link with Jaguar was continued as an XK8 convertible was used in this film.

Whatever your views of the Austin Powers character, at least he had excellent taste in cars!