By Jordan Rimpela
Oct 21, 2019
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Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance,
Jaguar XK120
Photo courtesy Jaguar
The upcoming Hilton Head Island’s Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival will set the spotlight on Jaguar's first post-war sports car, the XK120, by featuring 19 different variants of the XK. From an original aluminum XK120 to a racing XK120C—and all submodels of the XK120, XK140 and XK150—the XK series will be represented well on November 3. The Hilton Head Island’s Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival itself runs from October 24-November 3.
Find the press release below and leave a comment.
‘Cats to Prowl the Lowcountry this November'
In 1948 Jaguar introduced a “concept” car at the London Motor Show called the Super Sport to highlight their new XK motor. The car caused such a stir that Chairman William Lyons immediately put it into production. The first 242 were built with an aluminum body but with demand exploding production quickly switched to all steel. This car, now called the Jaguar XK120, would set the design standard for ALL sports cars until Jaguar rolled out the E type in 1961 (even Ford and GM bought them to see what all the fuss was about).
The XK 120's name was chosen to reflect that the car could easily exceed 120 mph, making it the fastest production car at the time. These cars were raced and rallied all over the world, both as factory and privateer entries, winning Le Mans three times as well as winning the first-ever NASCAR road race in Linden, NJ in 1954. NASCAR banned all “foreign” cars after this race until Toyota broke through in 2007.
On Sunday, November 3, the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance will feature this iconic Jaguar with one of the finest groupings of these cars to gather in one place. There will be nineteen XKs with all the models and variations represented (XK120, XK140 and XK150) to include: all three versions for each edition (Roadster, Fixed Head Coup, Drop Head Coup); one of the original 242 “alloy” cars; a car that once belonged to a “very famous movie star” (and arguably the biggest fan of the XK ever), and a XK120C (C-Type) version built specifically for racing.
Don’t miss this opportunity to see the whole history of one of the most impactful cars ever built all in one place set in our beautiful Lowcountry setting.
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