Although many different British sports cars arrived in North America after the Second World War, arguably the most famous was the Jaguar XK120. Jaguar had built sports roadsters before the war, most notably the SS-100, but it felt that a new post-war car was needed.
Chief engineer William Heynes came up with a 3.4-litre in-line six with a massive crankshaft, seven generous main bearings and a surprisingly long stroke. Peak horsepower was 160 at 5,200 rpm.
This double-cam six was originally intended for a Jaguar sedan, but it was installed in the roadster as a temporary test bed while the sedan was being readied. The XK120 roadster, as it was called, proved so overwhelmingly popular it was put into production. The big sedan arrived in 1951 as the Jaguar Mark VII.
The new XK120 Jaguar was introduced at the 1948 Earls Court motor show in London displayed on a rotating tilted platform. The impact on the crowd was electric. The motoring world was stunned at this graceful and lithe roadster with its twin-cam engine that promised the 120 miles per hour (193 kilometres and hour) that inspired its name. And the new Jaguar was priced at a modest £1,275 (approx. $2,500), a figure so low skeptics predicted it would never come to market for that, if it came at all.
Lyons and Heynes soon capitalized on the good publicity.
To prove its competition credentials, Heynes developed the C-Type, also called the XK120C (“competition”) racing version. A three-car team of Cs was entered in the 1951 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in France. One won the event at an average speed of 150 km/h, the first of five Jaguar victories at Le Mans in the next seven years.
When the XK120 arrived in North America, it was equally impressive. Road & Track magazine (5/‘51) reported a top speed average of 196 km/h and a zero-to-96-km/h time of 10.1 seconds. In the Florida Everglades, Tom McCahill of Mechanix Illustrated recorded zero to 96 in nine seconds and a top speed of about 196 km/h.
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