1953 Jaguar XK120 Roadster
Supplied new to John Lyons, son of Jaguar founder William Lyons
£180,000 - £220,000
Registration No: RDU 932
Chassis No: 661112
MOT: Exempt
1 of just 1,170 right-hand drive XK120 Open Top Roadsters built
Destined for distributor P. J. Evans of Birmingham, but returned to the works and understood to have been exhibited at the Earls Court Motor Show
Supplied new in 1954 via Coombs of Guildford, with its first owner being none other than John Lyons, the only son of William Lyons
Purchased into the Stewart Collection of Jaguar cars in 2004
Winner of the 2008 XK60 event when awarded two glass diamonds
Covered some 68,000 miles during the vendor’s ownership
Launched at the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show, the Jaguar XK120 Roadster caused a sensation. Penned by William Lyons, the model’s sensuous lines seemed almost impossibly glamorous to a country still feeling the effects of rationing, while the 120mph top speed that its name signified soon became the stuff of legend. Flooded with orders, Jaguar began limited hand-built production soon thereafter (although it was not until 1950 that the factory was sufficiently tooled-up to discard aluminium in favour of steel for the curvaceous bodywork). Built round a cruciform-braced box-section chassis equipped with independent torsion-bar front suspension, a leaf-sprung ‘live’ rear axle and hydraulic drum brakes, the lithe two-seater proved equally adept on road or track, winning both the RAC TT and Alpine Trial during 1950 (the former victory coming in the hands of Stirling Moss). Credited with 160bhp and 190lb ft of torque in standard tune, its widely-admired 3,442cc DOHC straight-six engine was allied with a four-speed manual transmission. Arguably the defining sports car of its generation, a perilously shaky post-war British economy gave the Coventry manufacturer little choice but to concentrate on overseas sales and, resultingly, home-market examples are notably scarce, with just 1,170 right-hand drive Open Top Roadsters built out of a total of 7,606.
This 1953 XK120 joined the Stewart Collection in 2011, and a look through its paperwork reveals a fascinating history. The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust confirms that it was manufactured on October 2nd, 1953. It was earmarked for the distributor P. J. Evans of Birmingham, but ended up being returned to the works, because it was exhibited (so it is believed) at the Earls Court Motor Show, according to a letter supplied by Jaguar historian and founder of the International XK Club, Philip Porter. It ended up being sold in 1954 through Coombs of Guildford, with its first owner being none other than John Lyons, the only son of William Lyons. John had an XK120 which he raced, and it is possible that he intended to do the same with this one, but, tragically, he was killed in a motor accident en route to Le Mans in 1955, when he had only owned this car for a matter of months.
Our vendor was fortunate to be able to discuss the XK120 with Norman Dewis at a Jaguar 75th Anniversary event, where he shed some more light on its early life: “He remembered the car well. As John Lyons had bought a new car, he brought it round to the works development department, which Dewis was in charge of. He said to Norman, ‘I’m going to race this car, could you look at some of the modifications you did for the car that did 132mph on the Jabbeke highway in 1949?’ Norman told me they changed the engine a lot, and changed the diff. The large petrol filler was put on by someone else. As we were standing there, some press came to do an article on the John Lyons car. Norman said they changed it for racing, but he did not say how. I can tell you the changes—as I drove the car home, 500 miles after I bought it, there was a big engine noise. I took each plug out till I found which cylinder was making the noise, left the plug out, and drove home with five cylinders, no problem. My grandson and I took off the sump at the weekend and found out all the white metal of the main bearings was worn away. I ’phoned the seller, who told me to take it to Agra Engineering in Dundee, who do racing engines. The foreman ’phoned a week later to say he’d never seen an engine like it. It was unbelievable—the inlet and exhaust ports were chrome-plated, it had different valves, the underside of the cylinder head was highly polished, and it had been changed for higher compression.”
Because of Lyons’s untimely death, the XK led a low-key life until our vendor purchased it in restored condition and immediately entered into the spirit of ownership. His first major outing was in 2008, when he took it to the XK60 event celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the XK series. The organisers awarded sixty of the best cars in attendance a glass diamond, but our vendor was awarded two after one judge disclosed that he felt John Lyons’s personal car deserved special recognition—both are included in the sale. Another very big occasion occurred in 2011, when he drove it from Coventry to Geneva on the official E-type 50th Anniversary Tour, where it had been invited specifically to demonstrate to the press the differences between the XK and the E-type. In 2012, it went to London to take part in a New Year’s Day celebration, the first official event to mark the year of Queen Elizabeth II.’s Diamond Jubilee. Later that year, it won a concours d’élégance at Angoulême, and was driven to the Goodwood Revival for the Jaguar 75th Anniversary event by Chris Knapman, who reported on the occasion for The Daily Telegraph. In 2017 it participated in a major Jaguar Drivers’ Club event at Windsor Castle, and for Drive It Day in 2018, it took part in a tour of Scotland on which it was driven by H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent, who signed the boot lid. Once again, these are but a few highlights of the XK’s many appearances at rallies, tours and concours.
Amazingly, our vendor has travelled 68,000 miles in the car, including trips to St. Petersburg, Las Vegas, the Arctic Circle, Route 66 and the Stelvio Pass. He adds, “It only uses one pint of oil every thousand miles. It is very quick and runs a dream with no squeaks—the suspension has been done very recently.” Surely the epitome of road specification XK120s?
