Forgotten Supercharged Jaguar XJR Sleeper Is Live on Bring a Trailer

Elizabeth Puckett Elizabeth Puckett |
— 3 min read
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2000 Jaguar XJR in Anthracite

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Before the E39 M5 and the Mercedes E55 AMG became the default answers to "fast four-door," Jaguar was already shoving a supercharger into its flagship and calling it a day. This 24-years-family-owned 2000 Jaguar XJR shows 68,000 miles, is live on Bring a Trailer with no bids yet, and has about six days left on the clock.

A 370-HP Sleeper in a Gentleman's Suit

The XJR is the supercharged version of the X308 XJ, built from 1998 through 2003. Under the hood is a 4.0-liter AJ V8 fed by an Eaton supercharger, rated at 370 horsepower and 387 lb-ft of torque. Power goes to the rear wheels through a five-speed automatic, and the sport-tuned suspension rides on 18-inch wheels. Jaguar's own numbers put 0-60 mph in the mid-five-second range, which was properly quick for a leather-lined luxury sedan at the turn of the century.

The giveaways are subtle: quad headlights, dual exhaust tips, a chrome leaper on the hood and a speedometer that reads to 170 mph. That is the whole sales pitch, and it is a good one. There is no wing, no giant badge, and nothing to tell the next lane over that you are packing a blower.

Why It Got Forgotten

The XJR has spent two decades living in the shadow of its German rivals and, more recently, cars that follow the same supercharged-Jaguar recipe, like the S-Type R. Depreciation did what depreciation does, and the market largely stopped paying attention. That makes it a familiar kind of story on this site. We have flagged other overlooked super-sedans before, including Cadillac's hand-built CT6-V Blackwing and the Final 500 Oldsmobile Aurora, and the XJR belongs in the same conversation: serious hardware that never got its due.

The Car

According to the listing, the original owner sold this XJR in 2002 to the current seller's father, who kept it until he passed away in mid-2026. It is finished in Anthracite over Warm Charcoal leather with wood veneers on the dash, console and doors. The equipment list includes a sunroof, heated power front seats, cruise control, DVD-based navigation, an Alpine stereo, a trunk-mounted CD changer and, because it is a 2000 model, a cassette deck.

The paperwork helps. The seller includes the owner's manual and service records, and the listing shows a clean Carfax with no accidents or damage reported, nine service history records and four previous owners. The seller notes that the rear shocks and bushings were replaced in April 2023, and also mentions subframe repairs from that same month. The title is a clean Florida title in the name of the owner's trust.

Read the Fine Print

This is a driver, not a time capsule, and the listing says so. There is an area of missing paint on the rear bumper cover, along with rock chips highlighted in the gallery. The passenger-side wheels have curb rash, the driver's seat bolster is worn, and part of the headliner is loose.

The bigger question is maintenance. The seller says some of the service records stop around a decade ago, when the previous owner started using a private mechanic for his small collection, and concedes some information may be hard to come by now. A bidder has already asked in the comments whether the timing chain guides and tensioners were ever replaced, which is the standard question to ask about any AJ-V8 of this era. Get answers before you bid.

The Bottom Line

A supercharged V8, a rear-drive chassis, a 170-mph gauge cluster and a family-owned history is a lot of character, and with bidding just opened the price is still wide open. The wider market has been rediscovering offbeat performance, from the supercharged Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 to the Dakar-bred Pajero Evolution, so a clean British super-sedan may not stay overlooked for long.

The car is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the auction ends Monday, November 2, at 2:42 p.m. ET. See the original listing on Bring a Trailer.

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