W745 BAC first scrunched into our car park back in May 2000, its handsome body immaculately finished in metallic silver, its seam-perfect interior trimmed in black leather with dark wood. Naturally, I'd ticked the R Performance options box, so it was equipped with the slightly wider five-spoke BBS 18in alloys and the Brembo brake upgrade, making it an XJR-R. They would show their worth on many occasions, in particular at three magnificent race tracks ΂- Spa, Donington and Silverstone.

One of the enduring appeals of the XJR-R was its dual-role ability ΂- it is a superbly refined motorway mile-eater but its automatically adjusting CATS damping and broad Pirelli P-Zeros mean that it will also maintain its composure on bumpy, bendy B-roads or on the track.

Right from the off, the trip computer served notice of how much the Jag would cost to run, the first 1000 gentle running-in miles covered at an average of 19mpg, a figure that wavered little over the next 38,000 miles. The high for a tankful was 25.0mpg, achieved on a casual motorway saunter, the low just 5.3mpg for the 77 miles it racked up on the Donington trackday evening. But, hey, if you can afford a 155mph, 370bhp XJR costing ΂£58,625 (including the R options), surely you're not going to baulk at less than 20mpg?

The tyres lasted surprisingly well. The first pair of rears needed replacement a couple of thousand miles after the first service at 10,000 miles, but MD Metcalfe had taken the Jag on a jaunt to Spa and the Pirelli tyre test facility at Vizzola, Italy. There, he and Jaguar's then-F1 drivers, Johnny Herbert and Luciano Burti, and Jaguar's ride and handling guru Mike Cross, went hooning around in the XJR and also a similarly potent XKR coupe, so it was no surprise the rears were tired.

Interestingly, Herbert's stable of company cars included both XJR and XKR (as well as the R1) and, when asked, he said he preferred the poise and subtlety of the XJ. Perhaps he might have had more success if he'd driven one in F1, too.

The first blemish on the XJR's record, a faint knock from the steering column, was fixed at that first service, when the part-wood steering wheel was replaced with the full leather item I'd originally specified. Four new tyres were also fitted, though the fronts still had some life in them. Not long after, I was gutted to find that some sod had kicked a dent in the driver's door and rear flank when the car was parked in my local high street one evening.

It wouldn't be the first time the XJR would be on the receiving end of jealous violence: exactly a year later the bonnet was damaged by another tosser who'd decided it would be a laugh to clamber over the Jag. This time I was watching, he was caught on CCTV and I was on the phone to the police within a minute. In both cases, the culprit was never caught. I was so livid the second time that I was all for retribution of the 'eye for an eye' type ΂- I wanted to run over him, in the Jag.

When you drive a car that's as refined and relaxing as the XJR, even the slightest flaw is amplified. The brakes developed a slight vibration under both light and heavy braking at around 15,000 miles, yet strangely it vanished of its own accord before the next service was due.

A full-on trackday isn't the sort of place you expect to find something as big and heavy as an XJR but it acquitted itself remarkably well one evening at Donington Park. It seemed rather inappropriate to be gliding out of the pitlane wearing a crash helmet and racing gloves to mingle with Caterhams and Elises but the Jag showed an extraordinary turn of speed, keeping pace with the little Lotuses and proving faster than a 3-litre Z3 amongst other things.

Back at the office, my boast that it had survived almost unscathed ΂- the brakes didn't rumble, the tyres were hardly marked ΂- was contradicted a week or so later when it developed a loud under- bonnet tick and an incredibly irritating dashboard creak. A new seal in the supercharger piping cured the ticking but Marshals of Peterborough, who gave the car its 20,000-mile service (and also replaced the duff CD player under warranty), said they didn't hear the creak on road test. They must employ deaf technicians. The bill for the service came to ΂£594, including new front brake pads, and there was also the matter of four new Pirellis at ΂£884. This was at 25,000 miles and the set would still be more than serviceable when the car left us, though a puncture added another ΂£225 to the running costs.

Depreciation is severe, though. Sold privately, the XJR would make around ΂£25,000, which means after two years and 40,000 miles the value has more than halved. It also means that it's a superb secondhand proposition, with a year and 20,000 miles still on the warranty. And as Harry so eloquently described after his jaunt to Spa and Italy, you get two cars for the price of one: 'a traditional Jaguar with all that means for serene travel, plus a performance car thrown in for free'.