When I was offered the opportunity to drive a Jaguar XK8 for a day, all kinds of nostalgic thoughts washed over me: my old Mark VII in Yorkshire, my brand-new, chocolate-brown 1970 XJ6 in this wonderful country, the drives I had in an XKE6 and an XKE12.

    I picked up the XK8 convertible around lunch time, put the top down and returned to my home town, Del Mar. I drove through town to the post office with the sense that there were hundreds of eyes staring at my progress. Women, girls, kids, old men, young men, dogs, cats, you name it, they were looking. I went to the post office a number of times that afternoon.

    This is a great-looking car with a pronounced Jaguar family resemblance in its body curves. Sir William Lyons, Jaguar's founder, would have approved. The car is a sweetheart tootling around town, with its very competent and incredibly smooth 5-speed, German ZF, electronically controlled automatic transmission.

    The Lucas electrical components for the Jaguar are dead. Gone forever, thank Ford. This car was born in the right decade. Its electrical systems and components are largely "Nippondenso," just like a Lexus or an Infiniti or a Honda or an Acura.

    Ford gave the Jaguar engine design team a chunk of money and told them to design a modern, light, powerful V8 engine. They returned with an ultramodern, all-aluminum, 4-valves-per-cylinder, double-overhead-camshaft, fuel-injected, 4-liter, 290-horsepower magnificent motor. It’s like a pussycat around town, but when you push on the power pedal, the car zooms forward with a solid push in the back, a fast-rotating speedo needle and a wonderfully virile growl from the engine, as great a sound as any Jaguar ever made. You leave everyone in your mirror.

    Getting a little cold with the top down? Just press a button if you are in the car; if you’re not, turn the door key in the lock and the top slowly and carefully positions itself until a windshield-mounted mechanism grabs the top and locks it in position (no more than 10 miles per hour, please). The windows, which had previously moved down a couple of inches, move back up.

    The top has an inside headliner, and when you’re traveling with the top up you don’t know it’s a convertible. It’s quiet, with virtually no wind noise. The rear window is glass with a defogger.

    Want some fun? Find yourself some twisty roads and just point the car. It straightens them all out with its huge Pirelli tires, its power rack-and-pinion steering, sophisticated suspension, automatic stability control, 4-wheel anti-lock disk brakes and rock-solid body. Rock-solid body? This is a convertible. Don't they all rack and twist and creak a bit when pushed? They're supposed to, but this one doesn’t.

    This car is your obedient servant, no matter the conditions or driver whims. I deliberately drove into the end of a cul-de-sac much faster than prudent and turned the wheel. The car, with considerable aplomb, rotated gracefully without the slightest strain or upset, pointing in the other direction with a body language that said, "What would you like me to do now?" How about getting out on the freeway for a cruise, with the top up and some Mozart? The Harman Kardon radio is one of the best I’ve heard. It brings Mozart himself, complete with piano, orchestra and audience, into the car as you silently carve your way through trucks, minivans, cars, and, oops, a Highway Patrol cruiser.

    Anything not to like? Yes. The cheap-looking plastic instrument needles would look OK in a minivan but not in a $69,000 sports car. The Lincoln Continental-style wood-and-leather steering wheel is not my favorite. (By the way, the gorgeous wood in this car is real burled walnut, a la Rolls-Royce.) The Connolly leather interior is beautiful, but I wonder how the cream-colored seats will look at 75,000 miles or so.

    Road testers measure zero to 60 miles per hour at just under 7 seconds, and maximum speed is somewhere between 150 and 160 mph. Just where are we going to use that speed?

    Two models are offered, the convertible and a coupe that I didn’t drive but that many road testers liked. Features include a tilt-away telescopic steering column with position memory, radio controls on the steering wheel, outside air-temperature indicator, trip computer, universal garage-door opener and a host of others.

    List price for the coupe is $64,900 with a dealer cost of $57,104. For the convertible, those numbers are $69,900 and $61,472, respectively. The warranty is 48 months or 50,000 miles. The only Jaguar dealer in town is Cush Jaguar in Kearny Mesa, which seems very enthusiastic about being the new Jaguar dealership.

    As for me, I still can’t believe it’s British.

    Motoring since 1952, Austin Lynas has owned 54 cars and at one time raced mini-sedans in England. An aerospace engineer, he was instrumental in developing the anti-skid systems used in British military aircraft that preceded today’s ABS systems.