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The Jaguar XJ-S (later the Jaguar XJS), a luxury grand tourer, was produced by the British manufacturer Jaguar from 1976 to 1996. The XJ-S replaced the E-Type (also known as the XK-E) in September 1975, and was based on the XJ saloon. It had been developed as the XK-F, though it was very different in character from its predecessor. Although it never had quite the same sporting image, the XJ-S was a competent grand tourer, and more aerodynamic than the E-Type. The last XJS was produced on 4 April 1996, by then 115,413 had been produced during a 21-year production life. The model was replaced by the XK8. ==1975-1981== The XJ-S was launched on 10 September 1975.〔(''XJS History'', www.classic-xjs-sales.co.uk ) Retrieved 29 August 2015〕 The development of the car had begun in the late 1960s as project XJ27, with an initial shape set by Malcolm Sayer, but after his death in 1970 it was completed by the in-house Jaguar design team, headed by Doug Thorpe. Power came from the Jaguar V12 petrol engine with a choice of a manual or automatic transmission, but the manual was soon dropped as they were left over from V12 E Type production. V12 automobiles were unusual at the time, with notable others coming from Italian luxury sports car makers Lamborghini and Ferrari. The specifications of the XJ-S compared well with both Italian cars; it was able to accelerate to in 7.6 seconds (automatic) and had a top speed of . The first series of XJ-S cars had a Borg-Warner Model 12 transmission with a cast-iron case and a bolt-on bell-housing. In 1977 GM Turbo-Hydramatic 400 transmissions were fitted. The TH400 transmission was an all-aluminium alloy case with an integrated non-detachable bell-housing. When leaving the factory the XJ-S originally fitted Dunlop SP Super E205/70VR tyres on 15 × 6K alloy wheels, though British police forces would upgrade from this factory standard and fit a higher performing 205/70VR15 Michelin XWX to the Jaguars in their fleet.〔Paul Skilleter, ''Jaguar Sports Cars'', pp.323 ISBN 0-85429-166-0.〕 Jaguar's timing was not good; the car was launched in the wake of a fuel crisis, and the market for a 5.3-litre V12 grand tourer was very small. The styling was also the subject of criticism, including the buttresses behind the windows. German authorities feared these would restrict rearward vision, and refused to give the model (along with Lancia's similarly adorned Montecarlo model) type approval: it was for a time necessary instead for German XJS buyers to obtain type approval for each individual car when registering it. Such fears were ill founded, since in reality the rear visibility was very reasonable, with only the frontmost top edges of the buttresses being visible, when looking rearward. Jaguar did seize promotional opportunities with the television series ''The New Avengers'' and ''Return of the Saint''. ''The New Avengers'' featured Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) who drove an XJ-S. ''Return of the Saint'' saw Simon Templar (played by Ian Ogilvy) driving an early XJ-S with the number plate "ST 1". Miniature versions were made by Corgi and proved popular. A decade and a half before, Jaguar had turned down the producers of the earlier ''Saint'' series when approached about the E-type; the producers had instead used a Volvo P1800. Responding to criticisms that the XJ-S was not a worthy E-type successor, Pininfarina revealed a sporty show car in 1978 based on XJ-S mechanicals and called Jaguar XJSpider. The car never went into production. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jaguar XJS」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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