This is an elite Best Of Show 1974 Jaguar XJ12L RHD with a stunningly detailed documented history from it's purchase in the UK in 1974 to this day.
A comparable example of this beautiful and meticulously maintained XJ12L likely does not exist anywhere in the world.
Protecting and cherishing the provenance of this very special Jaguar includes all of the original purchase documents, scheduled maintenance entries in the originally issued books with the car, handwritten notes and entries by UK Jaguar technicians, and even the originally issued license tags - the front white and rear yellow plates.
How this Jaguar arrived in the US and it's journey since that time:
A member of the USAF and well known member of the original Jag-lovers.com forum, Sunny Garafolo, purchased this Jaguar while stationed overseas, having it shipped to the US as he was returning to California in the early/mid 1990s. The car's history with Sunny, and our purchase of it from him in the early 2000s and having it truck-shipped to Dayton Ohio I believe is still available to read within the updated version of that forum.
My wife and I very reluctantly sold it a few years later as our children were graduating high school and my wife and I transitioned from IT careers (and an almost maniacal passion for purchasing and restoring 60s-80s Jaguars, at least 25 Jags from the late 90s through the late 2000s) to my full time career as a touring singer/guitarist/recording engineer and producer.
In 2019, my wife and I began a search to find this car, it being "her baby" out of the 25+ Jaguars that we had owned and lovingly restored and passed along over the years.
We found it...in a museum in the St. Louis area.
John Testrake, a pilot and Jaguar/classic car enthusiast (to put it lightly), and often somewhat reluctant president of the JCNA St Louis area club, had purchased the car from whom my wife and I had sold it to years before.
In the spirit of condensing the rest of this story about this Jaguar, my wife and I re-purchased it from Mr. Testrake in 2019, after John had completed an almost indescribably passionate and detailed mechanical/cosmetic restoration of this XJ12L. His meticulously documented process of this is still available on both jag-lovers.com and jaguarforums.com, along with his detailed handwritten notes and journals that I have along with all of the aforementioned documentation, including almost every single receipt for parts and general documentation during his journey with this car.
Since 2019, my wife and I added perhaps 1500 miles to the odometer since purchasing it from Mr. Testrake, driving it to Jaguar events, occasional "Sunday drives", always making sure to drive it often to keep her "loose and tight" while keeping it stored and covered.
Tragically, I lost my wife and best friend of 40 years this past November to a massive stroke, 4 days after her 56th birthday.
This was her car. Her "baby", and I will never truly enjoy driving it, taking it to shows, etc.
It's time to let it go.
These pictures are ones that Mr. Testrake provided at the time of our re-purchase, I will provide/upload more pictures asap later this week as it is covered/stored (but driven multiple times in the last couple of months, I just haven't taken new pictures of it yet).
Again this Jaguar has perhaps 1500 additional miles on it since we re-purchased it from Mr. Testrake in 2019. It remains breathtakingly beautiful, starts instantly and as Mr. Testrake pointed out to me when my wife and I purchased it from him, "balances a nickle on it's side on the engine as it's idling."
It still does.
