1950 Jaguar XK 120 roadster

According to an interview with Sir William in the 1970s, the design was created, start-to-finish, in less than three weeks

by Gary Anderson

The first post-war auto salon held in London, the Earls Court British Motor Show, opened its doors on October 27, 1948. No one was prepared for the shock caused by the unveiling of the bronze-colored Jaguar roadster, the XK 120. William Lyons raised the bar for sports cars with this model, and nearly 60 years later we still admire its superb lines and the sound of its inline six-cylinder motor. The XK 120 entered into production in 1949, and was instantly in high demand. The first 244 XK 120s—including the car on offer here—were clad entirely in aluminum. In period, these represented the best of the best, with their advantageous power-to-weight ratio courtesy of the alloy body and the highly tunable, dual-overhead-cam XK engine. This engine was used in production Jaguarsin successive stages of development through 1987. Like many of its siblings, this XK 120 was first shipped to the United States’ West Coast, where it was campaigned in a number of amateur...