Okay thanks to all - and to Newt for the card from Mike Hawthorn (I wrote a bio book about him some 8 years ago). The beast is a 2006 Jaguar XKR-S, one of the last built in the original 1996 shape. I've had 5 of them in all since 1996 when they first appeared (as an XK8 then). At the time I was driving an elderly Jensen Interceptor Mk III (7.2 Litre) and thinking about something more modern and which could go round corners properly. My wife spotted a brand new XK8 in the Brighton multi story and said "What a lovely car" - so how could I refuse and a few weeks later I was the proud owner of one.
Then I changed to the XKR, which is supercharged, and had three more over the following years, one of which met a sorry end when a lamp post jumped out in front of it on the A23 one morning at 70 mph
and wrote it off. Impressively, I got out and walked away so it's reassuringly well built . I've spent the last few days converting the original ancient disk driven Sat Nav (maps last updated in 2001) to use a modern Garmin with voice control and fitted in place of the old one.
It's lived in Scotland for the last 7 years and not sure the last owner was very loving so lots of small jobs to do...
Attached is a piccy.
