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Driven to write ; Welcome to the Machine : Episode Eleven

 https://driventowrite.com/2026/03/25/jaguar-xj-s-history-episode-eleven/

Jaguar XJS - Not what they expected

 Great pics in this Jaguar FB post

Jaguar XJS - Ari Olivier

On the Dutch Marketplace I hit this particular XJS advert:

https://www.autoscout24.nl/aanbod/jaguar-xjs-5-3-v12-coupe-ex-ari-olivier-benzine-grijs-40b67203-9441-4cf2-a347-36ddecfe53eb

The main trigger for me was the mention of the previous owner: Ari Olivier.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Olivier

The advert came with the following support text:

Dit is de auto van meesteroplichter Ari Olivier — nee, geen soortgelijke, maar echt dé auto. Een bijzonder stukje historie dat deze Jaguar extra karakter geeft.
De heer Olivier stond, naast zijn reputatie als oplichter, bekend als een groot autoliefhebber met een duidelijke voorliefde voor Jaguars. Zijn auto’s kocht hij vaak bij dealer Kimman, soms met — laten we zeggen — creatieve betaalmethodes. Deze Jaguar XJS V12 behoorde tot zijn favorieten: hij reed er maar liefst negen jaar in.

Deze XJS verkeert in uitzonderlijk nette staat. De carrosserie is roestvrij, de auto vertoont geen buitensporige slijtage en er is geen sprake van achterstallig onderhoud. In de afgelopen jaren is er veel onderhoud uitgevoerd, allemaal netjes gedocumenteerd in een map met facturen en historie.

And also this photo with himself promoting his book with the XJS in the background.

I have to admit I was always slightly intrigued by this gentleman crook. And I even recall the TV episodes broadcasted on the Veronica station back in the days. Although that did not lasted very long as he got arrested after a few episodes. 

I do have collected the available Dutch books about him. And it's very entertaining and educative reading material. Although not for his victims, albeit some of these people simply got tricked by greed. His lifestyle was all about luxury and this included cars

He had a website as well for a brief moment: www.heerolivier.nl This can be still viewed via www.webarchive.org There was another newer website but I can't remember it. 

In any case, upon checking the website of the company who is offering this car for sale I read the story of this company and the owner. Clearly a car enthusiast and he shared a personal photo when still being a kid. I recognized this pedal car instantly:

It's a Moskvitch. See my blog if you are interested:

https://erwinmoskvich.blogspot.com/

Advertisement - The V-12 Jaguars

 

Car and Driver : From the Archive: 1992 Jaguar XJS Keeps Calm and Carries On

 https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a44360137/1992-jaguar-xjs-drive/

Ali Express : 6PCS BRANDSTOFINJECTOR VOOR JAGUAR DAIMLER XJ12 XJS V12 5.0 HIJ 82-89 D JETRONIC 0280150035

By surprise I bumped into this offer on Ali Express. Not sure how good the quality is but this is a bargain (well, pending on the quality of course). by the looks it does come with the fuel hose as well. Not sure if it does include the additional furele's. Does anyone has experience with these?

https://www.aliexpress.com/p/tesla-landing/index.html?scenario=c_ppc_item_bridge&productId=1005010185340712

Boot cleaned up and put everything back again

Over the past few years the boot was still not organized. At the time I had the complete fuel tank taken out, whilst the tank was cleaned and put back. The boot was a mess and serving as a temporary storage for several parts and such. So now finally time to organize it and put the carpets back in, the battery compartment build up (metal front cover, battery strapholder plus plastic cover box), fusebox cover and mount the spare wheel again. I was pleasantly surprised to see the spare wheel had a nice cover included, totally forgot about that. Also I have the jack and toolkit included in the side pockets.

This looks so nice and tidy again. Still I can consider to clean the carpets a little but that can wait. Should have taken a photo before as well:

Basically this means the car is now fully build up again and almost ready to drive again. I still want to work on a couple of items though but so far so good.

Front spoiler + cover plate + grille

 Another thing I had to mount back was the front bumper spoiler and the cover plate:

This reminded me I also need to source a decent front metal cover plate as that one is seriously rotten. Luckily its an item that can easily be removed and replaced (if I can source a good one):

But the grill also needs attention:

Not sure how this is suppose to look like originally. Is the outer trim chrome or polished aluminum. Or should it be entirely in black paint? 

It's now all fitted back but not entirely to my liking, the three bottom pins in the grill shoud fit thru the spoiler but there is to much space. 

Meanwhile I also looked up the bottom plate, difficult if you don't know the appropiate name or part number. But the good news is, I found it and it's available, still a bit pricy so hopefully I can source an affordable used one. 

https://www.sngbarratt.com/Nederlands/NL/parts/4a267463-62e6-4af3-993b-3e873ec78224?saveBranch=NL

And the part nr is: RTC1531 (front lower panel valence)

Knowing this informatio it helps to narrow down the search.

for my reference: https://www.jaguarforum.com/threads/front-end-construction-of-xjs.33695/

and https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xjs-x27-32/front-spoiler-install-153058/

and https://forums.jag-lovers.com/t/something-missing/378910/5

Wiring loom - clothing cover replacement - Tesa heat resistant isolation linnen tape

Whilst I was doing the fuel hoses, in between I also tackled some wiring insulation. I don't expect anyone knowing or remembering this but shortly after I had bought this car a small explosion with fire occurred, see this blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/08/engine-caught-fire.html

As a result some of the electrical cable harness had minimum or no protective cover left, not the plastic but the clothing insulation, not sure what the appropiate name is. For the XJS they used apparently a brown colored material. And due to it's age and heating it's mostly detoriated and can be easily peeled off:

Recently for another car, Lancia Kappa SW, I have done a similar exercise:

https://erwinkappa.blogspot.com/2025/08/wiring-loom-heat-resistant-insulation.html

So I had still a bit insulation tape left I could use. So that's exactly what I did. I freed up the cable and removed the old insulation cover,

And covered with new "tape". Such an easy and rewarding job. 

And another small section I had done:

So for now the most impacted and visible wiring looms has be done. I only did these as they were next to the fuel hoses I was upgrading. Doing the entire wiring loom in the engine bay is a huge task. For now this was an easy and quick fix in between and I also could finalize the fuel hoses. I will consider the remaining parts or other visbile cables for another time.

All looking good again: