This car belonged to my Great Uncle Andrew. I used to love to go and see him up in Dunfermline Scotland as he would let me sit in the Jag. He was my Gran's elder brother and had inherited the family business. He was our rich uncle and he always had Jags. My Dad can remember being picked up from school in the 1950's and 60's in his cars, and how all the other kids were jealous. This was at a time when owning a Jag was a big deal, especially in Coventry.

He had a MK2 Jag before this one, but traded it in for 'The big one' as he used to call it. And big it was, bloody massive in fact. 16 feet 10 inches long by 6 feet 4 inches wide. It had a top speed of 122 Mph and could stop quickly too thanks to disk brakes all around. It was a huge expanse of wood, leather and wilton carpet. I loved it. We parked our Escort next to it once (D186OKP) and measured them both. The Jag was nearly one and half Escorts long, and its bonnet was the same length as 3 escort bonnets.

I remember going out in it when we stayed with him (which was several times a year) and being fascinated by the mirrored drinks cabinets in the rear of the front seats. They even had decanters and cut crystal glasses in them for christs sakes.

I also remember being impressed by it's spec. It had electric windows all round, this was in the 80's remember, and hardly any cars had electric windows then. (The jag was nearly 20 years old at this time also) It had loads of dials on the dash, two fuel tanks which you could flick between with a toggle switch and armrests. It was bloody ace.

I can also remember the way he drove it. It was scary. He was quite elderly by then, and he drove the thing flat out. It was big and heavy, but it did have the famous 4.2 litre XK straight six engine (hence it's 420 designation), and it couldn't half shift. The XK was a twin ohc engine with three huge SU carburettors feeding the six cylinders. It had 265bhp on tap, and despite its weight of more than 1800kg, its 0-60 mph time was around 10 seconds.

This was quick in the 80's let alone in the 60's. It was the BMW M5 of it's day, and nothing bar an Aston could touch it for speed and luxury. I remember sliding about all over the place on those huge rear leather bench seats and being flung forward onto the floor during heavy braking. There was so much room to fly around in when going around corners, and no seatbelts to stop you.

One incident stays with me from that car - my first ever crash. We were in the Jag and my Uncle Andrew was looking for a space in a full car park. He spotted what appeared to be a space and bombed into it. He swung the car in at a vast rate of knots, only to realise too late that the space was occupied - by an Austin Mini.

It was so short and parked so close to the wall that you couldn't see it from the road. It was far too late to stop and we smacked into it at a fair old lick. The poor mini was sandwiched between the brick wall and the front of the 420G. It was completely pancaked - it must have been 3 feet shorter when we reversed off it. My Uncle simply drove off and parked somewhere else.

When we got back home, the only damage to the Jag was a mildly dented bumper. I wouldn't have liked to have been the owner of the Mini returning from their shopping trip only to find their car smashed to bits. I had always hoped that he would leave me the car in his will as I had always showed an interest in it. When he died, my Uncle Duncan bought it from the estate and drove it back to Coventry.

He had an idea to start a wedding hire business. Unfortunately, the car was in a sorry state. It was just over 20 years old and was coming out of it's an old banger and into classic status. It was your typical everyday runner - it had been patched up and nursed through the MOT for years, and required a full restoration. These Jags have a tendency to rust which is somewhat of an understatement. It was also brown, which isn't the ideal colour for a wedding car and as it was so big, the respray cost would have been prohibitive.

My Uncle sold it to some lads who were 'going to do it up.' I always thought they were banger racers, until last yearwhen our boiler failed. I got talking to the bloke who came to fix it, and guess what - he had bought it. He welded it up and got it through the MoT with the intention of keeping it. In the end he sold it to a guy with an Irish accent but the car hasn't been on the road since 1990 according to the DVLA.

I still hope that it may have been exported to Ireland and survive somewhere, but I doubt it somehow.