1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster

Description

One of the most influential sports cars of the immediate post-war era, Jaguar’s XK120 stunned the world when it first appeared at the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show.  The combination of streamlined styling and a powerful overhead-camshaft six-cylinder engine put the XK120 in a league of its own, with a top speed of 120 mph in an era when most cars could barely top ‘the ton’.  In a Britain still struggling to recover from the dark days of the war, the XK120 captured the public’s imagination in a way few cars before or since have done and Jaguar successfully exploited this through a series of record breaking attempts and of course, on the track.  A strong showing in competition certainly did the XK120s reputation little harm – in its most highly developed form, as the XK120C (or C-Type as it is usually referred to), the model won the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour race on no less than two occasions while standard cars were successfully campaigned all over the world.  Powered by a brand new 3.4-litre twin-cam six-cylinder engine developing 160 horsepower, the XK120 was the fastest production car of the day.  Initially available as a roadster only, Jaguar added a stylish fixed-head coupe and more luxuriously equipped drophead coupe to the line-up.  With most earmarked for export, few XK120s were built in right-hand drive guise and of the 1,175 roadsters made for RHD markets, just 192 steel-bodied examples were delivered in Australia.  As values of the XK sports models have soared in recent years, XK120 roadsters have become increasingly sought after and finding an original, Australian delivered example is all too rare.  Had the car been produced in the limited numbers originally envisaged by Jaguar, values today would arguably be on a par with low volume exotics from Aston Martin, Ferrari or Maserati – cars in whose company the XK120 can stand tall.