I had the pleasure of having a drink, Friday night, with Pierre, an elderly gentleman as crazy about classic cars as myself, but with a far longer pedigree both in ownership and understanding the mechanics than I will ever achieve. His brand has always been Jaguar, and his garage notably includes a 12-cylinder E-type coupé. We came to talk about the (to some, surprising) robustness of the engine, and it was then that it struck me: at a time when emission levels are being tightened and even Porsches and Ferraris have become turbo-powered, it is pretty clear that we will never see a new 12-cylinder engine being developed. And that, my friends, is sad news.

The first 12-cylinder I experienced (as a passenger at the time) was that of a BMW 750 from the late 80’s. It developed 300 bhp, then an astonishing number, but it was not the power itself but rather the smoothness of the engine that was so impressive. In that regard, nothing can really compete with a 12-cylinder.

So it’s sad we won’t see any new ones – but it’s great you can still get your hands on one without being ruined!

Onone hand you have late 7-series and S-class models that you can oftentimes pick up fully loaded at something like an 80% discount to their new price with less than 100.000 kms on the clock. Surely exciting, but my heart beats more for a classical, mechanical 12-cylinder, such as the eye-watering ones from Maranello, or indeed those from the house of Jaguar. And whereas the former have sky-rocketed in prices, the ones from Coventry are still reasonable. Less so in the E-type, more so in the still very cheap XJ-S models, as coupé or convertible. Both can today be picked up in excellent condition for EUR 20-25.000, meaning they have most probably seen the bottom in terms of prices.

Will a Jaguar 12-cylinder ruin you? Not necessarily, according to my friend Pierre. The engine is quite robust and in some aspects less sensitive than the smaller 6-cylinder. It was also produced during a long time so by the time it made it into the XJ-S, it had already seen a number of revisions. My suggestion would be to find a car with full history, have it checked, and making sure you turn to a specialist the day something happens. If you have that in place, you can’t really go wrong!