What do you make of this 1989 Railton F29 Claremont?

A couple of months ago, this very car sold for £67,500 at Silverstone Auctions’ ‘British Marques’ sale. Now we know the buyer – a private car collection based in the UK called Studio434.

That’s the buyer, but what on earth is the car all about? It’s rare, to start with – only two were ever built, by none other than William Towns; the same William Towns responsible for the Aston Martin Lagonda (the excellently wedgy one, a version of which we showed you recently), and the DBS V8.

Towns wanted to resurrect the Railton name – a pre-war British carmaker that went on to collect endurance and land speed records over the years – using a Jaguar XJS as a base.

And lo, this Railton Claremont is indeed a Jaguar XJS convertible, complete with a V12 underneath, clothed in his imitable style. And we do mean ‘clothed’: Towns had no intention of stripping the original car down to its chassis, instead choosing to fit new panels over the existing steel body.

Said panels were formed from aluminium, and, well, you can judge the results for yourself. We noted this is one of two – the second car was called Fairmile, and ditched the rear arch fairings and featured “oversized” back wheels. Other than that, both were identical.

There was a cream leather interior inside because it was 1989, you got all the mod cons the XJS offered at the time – air con, power steering, cruise control, heated seats, electric windows, and electric roof – and of course, a 280bhp, 5.3-litre V12 capable of 143mph flat out.

Towns apparently kept this very Claremont in his personal possession for the rest of his life, after which it passed onto a private collection before being sold… back into another private collection.

There are some in the Top Gear office who think this is a work of unparalleled genius, some who think bars of soap belong in the bathtub, and others who prefer not to go on the record. Which camp do you fall in?