A CAR which has been on sale for only two weeks is already subject to delivery delays of at least six months. Unprecedented showroom success of the new Jaguar XJ8 has brought a flood of orders to outstrip the supply of the car.

Nick Scheele, the Jaguar chairman, said: 'More than 16,000 orders are in the pipeline and the car still has to be launched in Japan, Australia and the Middle East. Our output has reached 1,090 per week - a new all-time production record for the company - but we are forward-sold to April. In terms of numbers, the success of the saloon is actually greater than what we achieved 12 months ago with the XK8 sports car. It is remarkable.'

Jaguar, revitalised after almost crashing in 1990, has improved sales in Britain by 12 per cent so far this year and the company is now on course to retail more than 50,000 units next year to set a new sales record. UK operations director Andrew Lester said the Coventry company had pooled its resources with its dealer network to stage a total of 55 ride and drive events based on the new model.