The Daimler and Jaguar XJ40
August 2018
Introduction
My Daimler Double Six in the Haarlemmermeer polder. Photo © Rens Swart
On a previous page, I described the cars that I loved during the long time I did not own a car. The Rover SD1 or 3500 Vanden Plas was my favourite and it became my (our) first car. One would expect that Jaguar would also be among my favorite brands, but it wasn't. But in the end, the second car I bought was a Jaguar, the top spec Daimler Double Six. More XJ40 cars (as the model is known) would follow.
On these pages, I describe why the Jaguar XJ40 became my favourite model. Not surprisingly, and bearing a striking resemblance with my favourite architecure and art, it is the Jaguar model that is (was??) the least liked under car lovers and even Jaguar enthusiasts.
I will share with you how I selected the model that should become my first Jaguar and how I tried to find it and finally bought and imported my Daimler Double Six from Switzerland. It is always a nice little party to visit a potentially interesting Jaguar and inspect it closely, making numerous photographs. I will share the list of points that deserve attention while inspecting and selecting a Jaguar XJ40 and will described some of the work I did on my cars. Eventually, between 2008 and 2014 I got six Jaguars, so, although some were not bought because of their shining appearance but as a cheap parts store, in principle there is too much to describe on this website.
There is one very friendly expert and enthusiast forum not to miss: xj40.com, and I will describe and abundantly illustrate several gatherings organised by my forum friends.
Furthermore, I collect parts and brochures, and why not try to document them in a web-presentable way? In this way I can share with others what fascinates me and that is in my view the most inspiring way to read, learn and enjoy things.
Move from Swartvast to Rens Swart website …
We are in the process of moving the car enthusiast pages from the webserver of my company Swartvast to this personal web domain and server. They were there because I think it is good to know the guy you are professionally cooperating with. However, as the number of pages increased and it got slightly out of balance, I decided to move them to my personal web domain. Only one overview page on my numerous interests will be left on the Swartvast server.
This move is a tedious process that is underway, or sleeping during months. It's tedious also because I very oldfashionedly write my website completely myself in html, css and a little php for the menu (for a reason!), and I have to adapt it to my growing and changing insights. So you will need to exercise some patience.
I like cookies! But not on a website, unless necessary for its functioning in the lean way. I don't use 'cookies', I eat them.
Oops, off topic 
> Next page: What Jaguar?
Kind regards,
Rens Swart