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.