About two years ago, I got a 2013 Jaguar XKR-S hardtop, and I love it. It’s comfortable, fast, loud, useful, and pretty. It’s the definition of what a grand tourer should be: a combination of luxury and performance that make it easy to drive long distances at speed. I do way more road trips than track days, although that might change now that I’m in Vegas.
But originally, when I first fell in love with the XKR-S, I wanted the convertible version.
So I kept my eye out on the market – mostly out of curiosity – watching prices and availability. When this French Racing Blue convertible came up on BringATrailer, the bidding was really slow and low. I told myself that if it was at $50K or below in the final two minutes, that I’d pull the trigger. Bidding stalled at $48K, and neither of the other bidders’ profiles looked like they were really serious, so I bid exactly once at $48,500 – and won.
So now I’ve got both the hardtop and the convertible. Same year, same color.
It was funny seeing them next to each other for the first time – it was immediately obvious under good lighting that they’re wildly different shades of blue right now. That’s because the hardtop’s paint was recently color-corrected, something I’ll wanna do to the convertible just so they look great sitting side by side.
I don’t know yet whether I’ll keep both of them long term. They’re very rare, and it’s kinda fun to own two of them. Jaguar never published detailed numbers on how many were built, but the current best guess is that across the entire 4-year production run, there were 394 convertibles worldwide and 941 hardtops sold worldwide. That sounds like a lot, but only a percentage made it to the US, and of those, only a percentage were French Racing Blue. For example, in 2012, out of the 136 convertibles sold worldwide, only 25 were allocated to the US.
Would I buy a third XKR-S? Well, there’s one other special edition of the XKR-S: the XKR-S GT, a track-focused version with the same engine, but a rougher ride for racing usage. Only 45 of them were built, 30 for the US & Canada, and they were only available in white. I’ve never driven one, and at the prices they usually go for, it’s just not my bag. Like I said, I do more road trips than track days.
So that puts me at two Jags, the Speedster replica, and the Ferrari 328 GTS. I only have a 3-car garage, but the Ferrari is at Donnie Callaway’s getting restored, so that buys me a little time on my decisions.
16 Comments. Leave new
Outstanding. May I humbly suggest using the hard top for track days?
Thanks! Like I mentioned in the post, I do way more road trips than track days for now. I don’t really wanna abuse my road trip cars by taking ’em on track days.
Understood 🙂 What I was hinting at, since you have TWO now, you could abuse one and cruise the other. But I understand keeping them both nice, they are in great shape. Enjoy!
Have you thought something more “exotic”, like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, etc.?
Yep, I’ve got 5 cars at the moment, including a Ferrari 328 GTS: https://ozar.me/2022/04/bought-a-1986-ferrari-328-gts/
I would call this “professional distortion”. Because Brent Ozar setup too many Disaster Recovery and High Availability plans he ended up buying 2 Jag XKR-S.
He practices what he teaches. Redundancy. He has has a backup and can restore his road trip functionality with zero RTO
let me know if you want to sell the convertible <3 <3 🙂
I think i now own your XKR-S convertible if you sold it
Oh cool, congrats! It’s delightful.
Great score! Perfect color!
HI, I have 2 xkr not s.. need to replace the family suv soon but found a xkrs in the red with a satin wrap , prefer the blue, but.. headliner swapped for starlight alcantara.. and has 150,000 (220+ km) miles (almost).. not sure if even worth it.. ..and if so what would be a good price.. thank you in advance.. MO.
I can’t really answer that without driving the car – fair? Cheers!
Hi Brent. If you ever decide to part with either xkr-s I would buy either anytime….. thank you
They’re both already sold. Cheers!
Thanks for letting me know. 😊