Thirteen XKs Later

I suppose my first automotive love affair was with an XK. Probably for no other reason than a ‘120 fixed head , OLF 473, was one of my earliest cars and I loved her to bits. Having been weaned on lesser fare, to my inexperienced right foot, the XK was blisteringly quick although, I’ll admit, not so by modern standards.  My few photographs are risible. I might have been better taking photography lessons and less time scaring other road users in my wonderful British racing green bomb. Foolishly I sold my trusty ‘120 and had, in close succession, a horrible XK 150 and a quite decent ‘140 drop head coupe acquired for a princely £55.

The next XK was a reasonably respectable ‘120 drop head that I acquired for £72.10s (that’s seventy Pounds and fifty pence to the newbies) from a dealer in Croydon. Apart from a rather lumpy re-pray and a derelict top, she was in moderately fine fettle. My first wife Norma and I spent a happy summer chasing around in our golden carriage. She made a noise like no other and, when I checked, I discovered she had a straight through exhaust and I mean straight through. There were absolutely no silencers to get in the way. One might have expected back pressure problems but she went well enough.

1953 XK 120 Fixed Head. One of under 200 right handed cars made. I paid £110; she had a rebuilt engine.

Another execrable shot of OLF circa 1964

By the seaside - my first wife Norma in our golden XK in a Margate carpark -  circa 1965.

The next XK of my youth was one of the most evil cars I have owned, another XK 150 bought in the depths of rain sodden Manchester. Nothing was right and everything was wrong. She was forever conking out at the most inopportune moments. I seemed doomed interminably to be stuffing petrol soaked rags into the carburettors to get her restarted. I was lucky to swap the wreck for a passable ‘140 fixed head with a slipping clutch. It could have been fixed for not a lot of cash but I didn’t have any so it was history within weeks.

This is the ‘120 I bought in Houston, Texas. I personally converted her to right hand drive and rebuilt or replaced almost every mechanical part.

I lavished a great deal of attention on her and brought her back to England when we came home. Over time I carried out a complete mechanical rebuild but, apart from a hasty respray, never quite got around to refurbishing the body. In a fit of madness I sold her to a racer and she’s still out somewhere roaring around a track. I regretted it at once and have since replaced her with the Barris.

While we were in the US and with keen prices, I acquired my ‘140 and the ‘150S which I still have and which can be viewed on the Jaguar pages.

At one time I owned five XKs all at once, the three mentioned above and a fixed head ‘120 that I bought as a basket case and almost completely restored. I don’t know why I sold her. Partly I suppose because the chap who wanted her was so insistent and partly because I had so much going on at the time; racing a pre-war VSCC Alvis as well as another ‘120. I was also involved with other projects.

It was twenty years later when we lived in Houston, Texas that, out searching for an E type, I came across a rather down at heel XK 120 OTS.

Left - XK fixed head rolling chassis nearing completion.

Right - Body and chassis reunited and loaded on the trailer.

I spent ages rebuilding her and actually had the body off the chassis. I’m sorry I let her go. I tried to buy her back a while ago before I acquired the Barris but the new owner wanted a fortune. She has turned out a peach.

The ‘120 race car was aluminium bodied although not an original. It had been built by the late Jim Tester who had fabricated a rear suspension cage to house the extra bits. The axle floated on the cart springs and was fixed to the chassis with top and bottom location bars. It also had a Watts linkage. I had the engine prepared by Peter Lander and she went like stink. A little more talent would have helped.

Right - Snetterton in my XK 120 Tester Special.

Now I’m getting on, I’ll make do with the four XKs I have although looking back I can recollect owning a dozen at one time or another.

Winter is usually pretty awful and none of the cars see the light of day through the grey times. It‘s usually a great joy, on the first sunny day in April, to get my  ladies into the sunshine and enjoy them once more.

Three XKs out in the first real sunshine of 2011. ‘120 FHC insert

It’s sad to relate that having, over many years, enquired after my first love I was recently told that she had been scrapped after terminal rot had finally claimed her. Even sadder were the pictures to prove it.