A car-starved Britain, still trundling around in perpendicular pre-war hangover vehicles, glimpsed the future in October 1948 with the launch of the Jaguar XK120 at the Earls Court Motor Show. Production commenced in 1949 in Coventry, and the XK's swoopy shape and stylish occupants would become a common sight on British roads over the next 15 years. It heralded the arrival of Jaguar's famous 3.4-litre twin overhead camshaft XK engine, (the basis of all their engines for the next 25 years) with an alloy cylinder head and twin side-draught SU carburettors producing nearly 160bhp. The '120' referred to the car's top speed which, at the time, made it the fastest production car in the world. Jaguar seems to have always had a flair for marketing and to illustrate that the car's top speed was not a figment of a publicist's imagination, in May 1949, on the Jabbeke to Aeltre autoroute, an XK120 with its hood and side screens in place recorded a speed of 126mph, and no less than 132mph with the hood and windscreen detached and an undertray fitted. The car was in almost instant demand and went on to spawn the famous XK lineage of fast and elegant sports cars.
This particular XK120 Coupé was originally built in left-hand drive during December 1953 and dispatched to New York prior to being registered there early in 1954. Returning to these shores in the late 1990s, it was converted to right-hand drive and fully restored. Invoices and photographs in the comprehensive history file and records on XK Data show that the work was carried out by Roger Austin Learmonth and subsequently featured in his book Petrolhead. Upgrades at the time included the fitting of a 4.2-litre XK power unit and period bucket seats to enhance legroom. Now finished in beautiful Opalescent Blue with a red leather upholstery, the car was further updated with a louvered bonnet with straps and wire wheels, all designed to make it ideal for European touring. It was re-registered in the UK during July 2003 and used extensively until being sold to our late vendor (a characterful bon viveur and friend of Iconic Auctions owner, Nick Whale) in 2016. It was bought for some £115,000 at the time as probably the very best example of an upgraded model available.
However, our late vendor was particularly fastidious and wanted the very best car available to enjoy and with which to tour Europe. Consequently the services of renowned specialists, CMC of Bridgnorth, were employed and between March 2017 and December 2019 the history file illustrates that some £88,824 plus VAT was invested in rebuilding this car for a second time and the results are really impressive. Naturally, this work was recorded and fully detailed in a selection of invoices which need to be studied in order to understand the sheer level of detail applied to every aspect of this rebuild to, what can only be described as, the ultimate standard.
Shortly after all this work was completed, our vendor got to enjoy his 'pride and joy' on a trip to Le Mans during which the Jaguar performed faultlessly, however, a little later, he sadly fell ill and was not able to spend much more time in his beloved XK. So today, this is a remarkable opportunity for someone to own a very special motor car that has had all the money spent in the right areas, and with the best people, and take WAS 210 on to the next stage of its journey.
We invite and encourage your close inspection of this stunning motor car and its fascinating history file in order to fully appreciate the quality on offer and be pleasantly surprised by the very realistic guide price.
