This year marks 75 years of Jaguar’s illustrious XK sports car range – cars capable of reaching 120mph, with styling that was out of this world and at a price that made Aston Martins look alarmingly dear. And what the XK120 established, subsequent models continued, evolving through the XK140 and XK150 to the swish, swooping E-Type – the car that many cite as the ultimate classic of all time.
Following the E-Type’s shift from sports car to grand tourer, Jaguar set its sights firmly at rivals like the Aston Martin V8 and Jensen Interceptor with the XJ-S, evolving the range downwards before adapting the old platform for the new XK8. This would be the fourth time Jaguar had used the sports car line to preview an engine for the saloon range, and this would only change with the downward expansion of the four-door line-up. The XK8 and supercharged XKR were replaced by new aluminium-bodied variants in 2006, but it was the new and smaller F-Type that would carry Jaguar’s true sports car image forward as the XK outgrew the sports market. So, let’s take a look at the evolution of a 75-year legend.
XK120
Originally launched as a means of showcasing its new XK six-cylinder engine, the XK120 was effectively based upon a cut down MkVII chassis. Built hastily for the 1948 Earl’s Court Motor Show and revealed before the prototype had even run, production was a last-minute decision for what had been meant primarily as a concept car.
Early examples used a wooden frame and aluminium panels, and this labour-intensive means of production meant few were built. The state of the order books also meant that plans to create a 2.0-litre four-cylinder version, the XK100, fell by the wayside, as orders for the XK120 vastly outstripped Jaguar’s ability to build the car. High- speed proving runs at Jabbeke, Belgium on May 30, 1949 saw the XK120
