Poster Cars & Lifelong Dreams — The Jaguar That Never Left

Growing up, my poster car was the incredible Jaguar XJ220. When it launched, I was 10 years old, and I’d genuinely never seen anything like it. The shape, the speed, the sheer drama of it — it lodged itself firmly in my imagination, and from that moment on, I always dreamt of owning one one day. One of my favourite memories is of my Dad patiently saving up his Shell stamps, eventually coming home with a 1:18 scale Maisto model of the XJ220 in Le Mans Blue. To me, it may as well have been the real thing. Sadly, that model was mislaid over the years. But when one popped up on eBay recently, I couldn’t resist. The moment it arrived, all those memories came flooding back… even if this one is finished in Silverstone Green rather than my beloved Le Mans Blue. Strangely, despite the lifelong fascination, I’ve never actually seen an XJ220 properly up close, let alone sat in one. They say never meet your heroes — but this is one hero I absolutely intend to meet one day.

So if any friends of The Forge happen to have an XJ220 tucked away in their collection… the kettle is always on.

The model may have gone missing for a while. The dream never did. Owning an XJ220 is still very much on the list — I may just need to sell a few more MGBs first.