Having done Jaguar's international sporting image no end of good by winning the 1984 European Touring Car Championship at the wheel of an XJ-S, Tom Walkinshaw was called upon to give the Coventry manufacturer's road cars a performance makeover. Walkinshaw's JaguarSport company was already producing body and suspension kits for the XJ-S and in 1988 the factory sanctioned an official model incorporating Walkinshaw's enhancements – the XJR-S. The latter was launched in August 1988, capitalising on Jaguar's second consecutive World Sports Car Championship and victory at Le Mans that year. Walkinskaw's modifications to the running gear were relatively modest, yet the transformation of the XJ-S's road manners was marked. A top speed of more than 160mph was claimed for the V12-engined XJR-S, which at £45,500 in 1989 was by a considerable margin the most expensive Jaguar on offer.

 
The XJR-S was always a limited production model, with only 837 being made between 1989 and 1993 compared to more than 115,000 XJ-S cars in total. An automatic transmission model, this example has had only four keepers over the course of the last 28 years and comes with the original service booklet stamped up to 31,000 miles (the current odometer reading is circa 35,000 miles).