On a dollar per horsepower basis, today’s XJR might just be the bargain of the century. We’ll still have to see if this blown cat is also a bargain overall.

The seller of yesterday’s remarkably used his Craigslist ad to also share his travel photos and to shill a self-published book. So strange, but possibly a shrewd strategy to deflect attention from the RV’s $9,900 price. Few of you were fooled however, and with a 76 percent Crack Pipe loss the reason for the diversion became boldly evident. Happy trails, Chinook-book man!

Whether pronounced Jag-wahr, Jag-you-wahr, Jag-wire or perhaps tapped out in Morse code by the hoof of a scarily clever horse, the British car maker founded by Sir William Lyons is something of an enigma. Never quite able to compete with the likes of its German rivals, Mercedes and BMW, nor as fancy as its country mates Bentley and Rolls Royce, Jag still managed to hang on and remain, if not consistently relevant then at least enduringly interesting.

For the longest time, the company’s bread and butter sedan was the XJ series. It’s original iteration debuted in 1968 and continued in production almost long enough to actually rent itself—24 years. That initial model’s successor, the internally-named XJ40 had a much shorter run, although its immediate inheritor, the X300 was a derivation and not a clean sheet replacement. That would have to wait until 2003’s X350.

That inermediary X300 debuted in 1994 and was supplanted in ’97 by the X308, the name change denoting a switch from inline six and V12 engines to V8 mills in naturally aspirated and supercharged form. We have an example of the latter here today, and oh boy, when it comes to horsepower this should totally be a pussy galore.

This is a , which of course means it’s the high-zoot edition of the XJ line. This car’s supercharged 4-litre V8 nominally replaced the prior XJ12’s V12, but while that car was positioned as a luxury automobile with locomotive like expedition, the XJR is nothing more than a hot rod. Where the V12 was dignified and composed, the blown V8 is loud and proud. In fact, one of the most distinctive features of these cars is the intoxicating whine from its Eaton supercharger.

There’s little cheese to go with that whine as these cars are still bathed in Connolly cow and beautiful wood throughout. This one, in merlot over biscuit still looks pretty sweet on initial glance. There’s some de-lamination of the clear coat on the boot lid and the aftermarket wheels are perhaps to its detriment, but those are issues that have easy fixes.

The interior also shows little sign of wear, and of course the car comes with Jag’s funky J gate shifter. That’s connected to a Mercedes W5A580 automatic for five gears worth of buttery shifting when grandma’s in the back seat, and some serious cardio after she’s been dropped off. The Benz box was necessary on the “R”to corral the 375 horsepower and 385 lb-ft of torque offered up by the DOHC V8.

Hopefully this cat still pumps out something close to those numbers. It is 17 years old after all, and you know how lazy teens can be. On the plus side the ad notes that the car comes with no untoward lights on the dash and that it starts and “runs very well.”

On the other side of the coin, this is a 170,000 mile Jaguar that has apparently sat for about a year with only nominal exercise. Owing to that the seller claims it will need “minimal work” to put it back into regular use. What that might just entail is anybody’s guess.

Regardless, it does come with a new battery and a clean title so it’s got that going for it. It’s also only $2,500 which makes this Jag one of the best bang for your buck deals we’ve seen in a long time. That works out to just under seven bucks per pony. Plus you get a whole car in the deal too.

What do you think, is this wild Jag a deal at that $2,500 asking price? Or, is this a cat that’s to far form purrrr-fect to ask so much?

You decide!

Long Island , or go if the ad disappears.

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