What is the smallest garage that will accommodate an XJS? I don’t have access to my XJR-S right now, so I can’t physically measure it. I need to know the minimum garage door width, which I guess will be the distance between door mirrors + some spare room. But how much internal space do you need to get the door open to exit the car?
Mine sits in 12x20 and thats enough to get around it… not wide enough for doors to be opened all the way
My '89 XJ-S is 188in x 70.5in per the spec sheet. So a standard 7ft, 8ft, or 9ft wide garage door would easily allow an XJ-S through. Heck you could probably get it through a ~6ft wide opening if you folded in the mirrors and went slowly enough! Alas, I don’t have a garage so I can’t comment on how much room is required to open the car doors once inside.
When I was designing my house, I told my wife to pretend she was getting clothes out of the dryer. While she was bent over with her hands in the dryer, I said “Freeze!” and then walked over there and measured the distance from the wall behind the dryer to her ass. “Needed to know how much space is needed for a laundry room!”
This is kinda the same thing. IMHO, you don’t want the doors of your car even capable of hitting anything when opened, so open them all the way and measure it.
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You don’t think an XJS is a very big car until you try to fit in your garage that already has a washer and dryer in it. Still tweaking 10 gallons of s#$t in a five gallon bucket.
I would, if I was in the same country as the car. But I’m not, so I would like someone to measure their car for me.
Most America garages are bigger then the average UK house!!
I’m looking to buy somewhere in the Netherlands. Where the range seems to be small domestic garage, similar to the UK, up to large farm out buildings that would take 4+ cars. But oddly not much in between.
Yeah I think some European architect design packages still think we all drive Austin A40’s…
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The car itself is about 6’ wide and 16’ long. I’m going to be building a garage this spring to accommodate a lift and cars being worked on inside., The clear inside dimensions are going to be 13’ wide and about 24’ long with twelve’ ceiling height. There are conversion tables on line if needed.
I live in the US; my garage is 20’ x 20’ (approx 7 x 7 m) and houses a MGB along with a XJ-S. I find that I have to pull one car out whenever I work on the other, and it is impossible to open either cars doors fully when both are inside. I have a workbench, compressor, welder, and tool box in there also- works if you don’t mind clutter. The overhead door is 16’ (5.5 m). I would consider 12’ x 20’ (4 x 7m) an absolute minimum for a one car shop; even then, you will have to move the car to work at the bench.
Hoist/lift manufacturers will have dimensions for installation of there products; allow a minimum 3’ (1 m) on each side on the posts. Twelve feet (4 m) is about the minimum height for a low profile hoist.
After years of suffering, I’ve found the minimum garage size for me is 36 feet by 112 feet. It appears once you get two Jaguars or two MGs they start breeding.
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You will find that a garage 13x 24 ft is not wide enough to really accommodate two cars if they are to be worked upon.
For a two car operation the interior walls need to be 20 ft across at least, and you can get away with the interior 20 ft long, but better a little longer. A garage of that height and width (and I have one) needs support pillars, these are best placed on the outside of the building. Two of these pillars can be placed one third the way down the building to support a cross beam, with another beam running from the cross beam to the nearest end wall. That will provide all the lift capacity you need for engine lifting etc and enough flexibility to drop suspension sub frames and pushing the car backwards off the sub frame. The latter beam running from the cross beam to nearest wall needs positioning on the centre line of the vehicle lift.
On width issues owners forget about the need to withdraw half shafts and working under dashboards with both doors open. Don’t forget to place carpet on the walls at each car door position.
Feet… usa… Sae…
About building a garage…each door should be a minimum size of 9’ wide and 7’ high ( standard here in usa)… As a builder I like at least 4’ between two garage doors… I don’t like single wide doors because they have maintenance and support issues… Two individuals are better imo… you can put a walk in door between them then you don’t have to fight overhead door tracks… Higher ceilings are better… If you have larger vehicle s like suvs you need higher doors… I have installed many overhead sectional roll- up doors and also some " barn" doors… I prefer torsion spring systems as to side springs… I don’t like one piece lift up doors… Like many used in california… they can be dangerous. Also I like storage space above so I avoid using trusses and build with hand cut rafters with ridge board… better to overbuild than go cheap
Cosmo, to actually answer your question- my car , from the center of the console, where you might rest your elbow, to the edge of the wide-open drivers door, is six feet. Multiply by two, and then add some wiggle room , and thirteen feet would be safe, I think.
These are the dimensions from Jaguar’s own 1993.5 (94MY) brochure. These are the ‘full facelift’ cars with very similar style bumpers to the facelift XJR-S.
Our garage is integral to our house & my car is a relatively close fit - I can get out of the car after reversing it in but that’s about it. There’s no room to open the passenger door or do any work on the car. My previous car was a facelift XJR-S.
Andy.
