1951 Jaguar XK 120 Open Two Seater

Model History

The Jaguar XK120 Roadster, is arguably one of the most beautiful and iconic looking cars in history. To be such, one would imagine Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar and his team, agonising over every curve and detail when designing the car. The reality was that when the 1948 London Motor Show was looming and Jaguar needed a car to showcase their new 3.4 Litre DOHC straight-six engine, this sleek and graceful Open Two Seater was what they conjured up in a hurry! Unsurprisingly, the reaction was huge and the XK120 took Jaguar to new heights as one of the premium sports car manufacturers in the post war world. It wasn’t all about looks either, the "120" in its name indicated its top speed of 120 mph, which made it the fastest production car in the world at the time.

When the first production cars were built in 1949, the Open Two Seater was the only body style available. Interestingly, the first 242 cars were fitted with lightweight bodies made of aluminium. After that first batch, Jaguar changed the body for steel for mass production. In 1951 a fixed-head coupe (FHC) was introduced, and the drop-head coupe (DHC), arrived in 1953.

Motorsport was a natural place for such a quick car and would also serve as a great base from which to develop the cars and future models. The XK120 won it’s first race in a One Hour race at Silverstone in 1949. In 1950, six of the lightweight, alloy bodied cars were allocated to top drivers of the day to campaign and get Jaguar on the map. This included entries at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where brake issues meant that the drivers of the lead car had to use the gears to slow the car down and this ultimately lead to gearbox failure in the 21st hour, when it was running at a pace that would have resulted in victory. The two other factory cars managed 12th and 15th overall, which is no mean feat and convinced both Lyons and his chief engineer, William Heynes to invest in success at Le Mans. This proved to be a sound decision as Jaguar went on to win Le Mans in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956 and 1957.

The Jaguar XK120 also competed in the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and the Alpine Rally, the latter of which was won two years running by Ian Appleyard in probably the most famous XK120, known by its registration number as ‘NUB 120’.

From those early years Jaguar would go from strength to strength in bother motorsport and production cars. The Jaguar XK120 would lead onto the development of icons like the C-Type and D-Type, as well as spawn more exceptional road cars with the XK140, XK150 and eventually, it’s spiritual successor, the might Jaguar E-Type.

With the American economy flying after the war, demand for sports cars was huge and as a result, the majority of the 5,000 or so Jaguar XK120s that were built between 1948-1954, were for the export and thus mostly left hand drive.

Motor Car Offered

The Jaguar XK120 Open Two Seater (Roadster) for sale with Wrightson Automotive is a very special example. Not only is it one of the rarer home market cars but it has some lovely period competition history to boot.

OUA 456 was built in January 1951, it was supplied via Appleyard in Leeds, in Birch Grey with Biscuit and Red interior. The first owner was a Mr. D. Holroyd who owned West Yorkshire Foundries in Leeds. His company provided a number of castings to Jaguar themselves and the story goes that a number of special features were fitted to his car by the factory. This included a C-Type specification head, sand cast SU H85U carburettors, a close ratio gearbox and twin exhausts.

In 1953, the Coronation Year Morecombe National Rally and Concours d’Elegance took place and OUA 456 was entered, being driven by Mr. J.L. Pattinson. Period photographs and magazine articles show the car “rubbing shoulders” with other famous Jaguars including ‘NUB 120’ on the same event. Amazingly, the original rally badge is in the history file to this very day.

A period buff logbook details other owners from the early 1960’s including a Mr. Ken Coffey who was a very active racing driver and BRDC member. He campaigned the car in a number of events at Aintree and Oulton Park at the time.

According to a 1983 letter to the DVLC (now DVLA) on file, the Jaguar was bought by a Mr. J.R.B. Dersley from Cheshire in 1975. It was always his intention to restore the car and put it back on the road, but sadly life seems to have got in the way. He sold the car and in 2005 it was in the hands of Neil Baron, a well-known dealer. It was at this point that Micheal Wilkinson, son of Mike Wilkinson (M & C Wilkinson), the renowned Jaguar restorer, spotted the car. Being a rare UK RHD with early competition history, it would be an ideal candidate for one of their concours standard restorations. This was carried out in-house and the results were and are phenomenal. Specialist work was given to the best people in the business, for example, the engine was given to Peter Lander at Sigma Engineering and oh my did he work his magic, it feels like he has coaxed out twice the horsepower it left the factory with!

While being restored the car caught the eye of long term Wilkinson customer and historic racing driver, Chris Scragg. He agreed to purchase the car when it was finished, which it was in early 2008. In 2016 the car was submitted for FIA papers, which it duly got. This allows the car to be entered into some of the most prestigious and exclusive rallys and races in the world including the Mille Miglia and Goodwood.

In the last 5 years the traditional windscreen has been removed to make way for two aero screens and the original specification seats, that provide zero lateral support at all, have been replaced by some beautifully trimmed period style bucket seats. The original items are with the car and included in the sale.

I have been fortunate enough to drive many Jaguar XK’s and this car is without a shadow of a doubt the best and, almost certainly, the quickest of them all. I had the pleasure of handling this car in 2021 when the current owner acquired it. He entered OUA 456 into Salon Privé that year where it received a Judge’s Award.

Used sparingly on high days and holidays the time has come for the fascinating history of this very special Jaguar XK120 to start a new chapter with a new owner.

There are many attributes that dictate how desirable and often how expensive a car should be. These include rarity, style, performance and the ability to do the world’s best events. Usually, if a car offers all of these, it has a price to match. Not only does the Jaguar XK120 offer you all of these traits at a snip, they are reliable, easy to maintain and most importantly put a smile on your face and everyone who sees you roaring past.