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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Classic and Sports Car/Tony Baker
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© Classic and Sports Car/Tony Baker
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© BMW UK
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© BMW
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Mercedes-Benz
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© Mercedes-Benz
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© Toyota
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© Toyota
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© Tony Baker/Classic & Sports Car
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© Tony Baker/Classic & Sports Car
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© Jaguar
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© Jaguar
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© Tony Baker/Classic & Sports Car
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© Tony Baker/Classic & Sports Car
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Haymarket Automotive
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© Classic and Sports Car/Tony Baker
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© Tony Baker/Classic and Sports Car
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How to get that silky smooth unit under your bonnet
‘Cylinders: V12’. Remember how smug you felt dropping that particular grenade into a schoolyard game of supercar-themed Top Trumps?
Years later there’s still very little that beats the silky turbine whirr of a V12, and although the rapid rise in classic values has shrunk the availability of affordable cars, there are still bargains to be had.
Here, then, are our 12 favourite V12 monsters you can still pick up for less than £20k.
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1. Jaguar XJ-S
The E-type’s once-unloved successor has been rehabilitated by a new generation of classic car fans, but it’s still dirt cheap in comparison.
Forget the gruff 3.6 straight-six and the desirable but diabolically cumbersome early manual-transmission V12, and instead go for the big motor paired to GM’s hardy Hydramatic, which far better suits the XJ’s suave character.
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Jaguar XJ-S (cont.)
Post-’81 HE (high efficiency – but don’t get too excited; these things are relative) V12s will only make you weep, not wail, at the fuel bills, and are genuine 150mph cars. Which is more than you can say for production E-types.
Pay just £10k for a coupé in excellent condition; £20k for the gorgeous convertible.
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2. Aston Martin DB7 Vantage
Aston Martin’s DB7 arrived in ’92 with a supercharged straight-six, but got serious in 1999 when Aston added the glamorous V12-powered Vantage.
Maybe not quite so glamorous under the skin: this new British-built V12 was loosely based around a pair of Ford Duaretc V6s.
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Aston Martin DB7 Vantage (cont.)
The Mondeo connection was hardly exotic but Cosworth’s fingerprints were all over the conversion blueprints. It definitely made the right noises, and with over 400bhp it had all the right moves, too: 0-60mph took just 5.2 secs.
Bank on spending £25k for a good ’un, but you might just be able to find a more weathered car for less than £20k. Compared with a Ferrari 550 at £90k, it’s an absolute bargain.
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3. BMW 750iL
BMW finally got one over on arch-rival Mercedes in the luxury sector when it pulled the covers off its first V12 in the form of the new E32 750i.
Available from launch in long-wheelbase 750Li form and, soon after, as a 4.5in shorter 750i, the 295bhp V12 Seven could reach 60mph in 7.7 secs.
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BMW 750iL (cont.)
Those cylinders didn’t come cheap, though. When new, the 750iL was £10k more expensive than a Ferrari 328 GTB.
In fact, the £54k list price meant it cost the same as the average UK house in 1988. Thirty years later you can pick them up for the price of a posh shed.
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4. BMW 850i
And having socked it to Merc in the limo market, BMW dropped the V12 into its new 8-series coupé, just to rub salt in the wound.
The sexy pillar-less 850i could even be ordered with a manual transmission in place of the more common auto to underline its driver appeal.
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BMW 850i (cont.)
Magazine testers sound found out that driver appeal was in fact the one thing the 850i didn’t have, and criticised it in period for being fast, but dull to drive.
Fast forward 30 years and these 8s are now cult cars – and unfortunately therefore not the bargains they once were. But shop around and you can still get your hands on an 850i for £15k.
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5. Mercedes-Benz 600SEL
It took six years for Mercedes to come up with a V12 to match BMW’s, but when it did appear, under the bonnet of the 600SEL, it blew its Munich rival out of the water. The 6-litre M120 V12 pumped out 400bhp – a solid 100bhp more than the 750i.
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Mercedes-Benz 600SEL (cont.)
And with double-glazing, power-assisted door closing, and slick new styling, the rest of the S-class wasn’t too shabby either.
Demand for old limos with a supercar-grade drinking problem is hardly rampant, so £10k should be enough today.
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6. Mercedes-Benz SL600
Merc’s SL had long since forgotten about trying to be a sports car by the early 1990s, and dropping a 389bhp V12 under the bonnet didn’t change that. But it did make for an effortlessly quick open-top GT.
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Mercedes-Benz SL600 (cont.)
Then and now, the less powerful, but lighter, and still lightning-fast SL500 was the best bet.
But the kudos conferred by the little V12 badge on each wing, the smoothness of that engine and the chance to bore everyone in the pub that your car’s engine also powered the original Pagani Zonda certainly has appeal.
Pay £18k for a minter.
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7. Toyota Century
Like those micro ‘kei’ cars and Nissan Micras made to look like Mk2 Jags, Toyota’s chintzy Century limo is another Japanese oddity that makes no sense whatsoever outside its home country.
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Toyota Century (cont.)
It first appeared in 1967 with V8 power and looking more than a little like a Lincoln Continental. The 276bhp V12 we’re interested in didn’t appear until the 1997 redesign – which still left it looking like some Watergate-era relic.
Unsurprisingly, they’re rare in the UK, but grey imports do crop up for between £10-15k.
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8. Daimler Double Six
The world’s only V12-powered four-door saloon at the time of its launch, the 140mph XJ12 (and its Daimler Double Six twin) was a hybrid of the final E-type’s velvety V12 and the S1 XJ’s sublime ride comfort.
If the match sounds perfect, the timing was less so. The V12 cars arrived in showrooms only months before a crippling global fuel crisis.
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Daimler Double Six (cont.)
You’ll bag a nice XJ12 or Double Six saloon for £10-15k, but for extra cool points (and probably double the spend) hunt out one of the gorgeous XJ12C or Double Six coupés built between 1975 and 1978.
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9. Jaguar XJ12/XJ40
The square-jawed XJ40 landed in Jag dealers in 1986 – so why did it end up sharing showroom space with the old S3-shaped XJ12 until 1993?
Because the XJ40’s engine bay wasn’t big enough to accommodate the V12.
Keen to stave off any attempts from Leyland to force it to use Rover's V8, Jag purposely made the bay too narrow, and it took years to reengineer it when rival German marques put V12 power back on the agenda for saloons.
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Jaguar XJ12/XJ40 (cont.)
When the XJ40 finally got the V12 in ’93, it was a 6.0-litre version making 318bhp and mated to a GM four-speed auto ’box.
As before, there was a Daimler Double Six twin. Both are rare, but still not massively desirable, so £10k should buy something spectacular.
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10. Ferrari 400i
Worst Ferrari ever? For most people it’s a toss up between a 400 automatic and an early Mondial, though that hasn’t stopped the prices of either climbing to more than double what they were a few years ago.
We’d have to disagree, though. OK, so it’s never going to win any beauty contests while there’s still a 275GTB left on the planet, but the 365/400/412 cars’ three-box Pininfarina bodywork pulls off the straight-line look far better than Ferrari’s 308GT4 ever did.
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Ferrari 400i (cont.)
Besides, if you’re not taken with the saloon silhouette, the fact that the Colombo V12 isn’t light years removed from the one in the Daytona might swing it for you instead.
They’re no longer hot-hatch-cheap, but wait long enough and you should still be able to find a running, roadworthy example for under £20k. If you’re brave, that is…
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11. Bentley Continental GT
New owner Volkswagen reinvigorated the Bentley brand after buying it in 1998, bringing back the fabled 6.75-litre V8 for the revised Arnage saloon to placate traditionalists, and unveiling a more affordable Continental GT coupé powered by a new 12-cylinder engine to win over Bentley virgins.
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Bentley Continental GT (cont.)
OK, so the GT’s 12 is strictly speaking a W, not a V12 (it’s two narrow-angle VR6s fused together) but with the right badge on the nose and 552bhp underneath it, who’s complaining?
Avoid million-mile, modified mongrels and look for a low-owner, low-mileage car with full history. They do exist and £20k should bring one home.
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12. Jaguar E-type S3
You’d struggle to find someone who’d choose the heavier, fussier-looking V12-powered S3 E-type today over a peachy S1, all things being equal.
But they’re not equal: a good S3 is half the price of an early car and far easier to drive thanks to standard power steering and the extra space that comes with the long-wheelbase chassis previously used only on the 2+2s.
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Jaguar E-type S3 (cont.)
Originally rated at 272bhp, the S3 E-type was good for 60mph in 7 secs, making it the fastest E for almost a decade.
When it comes to fitting into our £20k budget, we’re cheating a little here. Roadsters are out of the question at this budget, and most coupés will still set you back £30k-plus.
So, if you really are limited to £20k, you’ll be looking at a restoration job. But then again, what could be more enjoyable than slowly bringing a classic back to life with years of hard graft?