We chart the history of the car which laid the foundations for the modern Jaguar company
NYONE WHO has experienced a sobering moment in the ruins of the old cathedral will agree that not much good came from the Blitz in Coventry but from the chaos of war sprung the seeds of what would become the very foundation of the modern Jaguar brand.
Like so many car factories, the war years had seen Jaguar’s manufacturing facilities turned over to military contracts and the constant risk of aerial bombardment meant that staff were required to spend one night a week on fire-watching duties. Unsurprisingly, the efficient William Lyons ensured that the time was made productive.
“He turned these sessions into a kind of ‘design seminar’ for what SS would do when car production could be resumed after the war,” recalled former Chief Development Engineer Walter Hassan in his autobiography. With camp beds set up in a small office, Claude Bailey, William Heynes, Hassan and Lyons would discuss engine requirements for the postwar cars Lyons was already sketching out and mocking up in spare moments. At that time the engines used in SS-Jaguars were a mixture of four and six-cylinder units all supplied by Standard, fitted with the firm’s own overhead-valve conversion. Unsurprisingly, Lyons’ love-hate relationship with Standard boss Sir John Black made him keen to produce his own engines and it was this which was discussed during the night-time sessions, leading ultimately to the development of the XK engine which would be a Jaguar mainstay for so long.
Naturally, the development of an all-new engine when the company’s finances had been hit hard by the war years didn’t leave abundant resources for other activities and so the development of the all-new car which Lyons had wanted to debut after the war had to be sidelined. Lyons had a big, imposing saloon car in mind but although the so-called MkVII was already in development, it wouldn’t be ready for production until 1950. He was unwilling to tarnish the glamour of his new high-tech engine by fitting it into the old-fashioned MkV, but didn’t want to miss the chance to promote the high-tech new engine.
Earls Court 1948 The XK120 debuts
The first postwar British motor show was scheduled for Earls Court in October 1948 and Lyons was keen to have something glamorous to exhibit. The solution was to work up a new sports car which would be the company’s first since the SS100 had been discontinued 10 years previously.
Lyons would later claim that the basic body shape was arrived at within just a couple of weeks and that the final shape was little altered from the first attempt. Using a shortened MkV chassis and Lyons’ mock-up, the first body was constructed by hand in aluminium at Abbey Panels, the new XK engine was fitted and the ne
