Jaguar XK120 (1948 - 1954)
The Jaguar XK120 was the first sports car launched by the brand following the second world war, and following the company renaming from SS (Swallow Sidecars) due to the negative connotations following the war. The XK120 was first shown as a concept car at the London motor show and after a wonderful reception, founder William Lyons decided to put the vehicle into production.
The Earliest XK120's were hand built with Aluminium bodies bult over an ash frame (in much the same way as Morgans are still built today) but demand meant that Jaguar had to switch to a faster mass production method by the launch of the 1950 model, which had a steel pressed body with alloy doors, bonnet and bootlid.
The XK120 was powered by the famous 6 cylinder inline XK engine. This was 3.4 litre 160 bhp unit with an alloy cylinder head and twin side carburettors, and was considered very advanced for its day. This engine stayed with the Jaguar range and was seen in various capacities in Jaguar Cars all the way through to the late eighties.
The XK120 was named originally after its listed 120 mph top speed, and at time of launch was the worlds fastest production car. It was originally launched as an open top roadster knowns as OTS (Open Two Seater), and a coupe model was introduced in 1951 the FHC (fixed Head Coupe) and following this the DHC (Drop Head Coupe) made production in 1953.
The OTS had a removable windscreen - so that a smaller racing style aeroscreen could be installed, and a light canvas top that could barely be described as a hood. The DHC brought more creature comforts with a fully folding padded roof and roll up windows, along with a wood veneer dashboard, where the original roadster models had leather dashboards. All models had the rear wheels enclosed by spats to increase aerodynamic efficiency, although these had to be removed on some later models which had the wire wheels fitted as the hub spinners would not fit.
