1952 Jaguar C-Type Roadster

William Lyons introduced his XK 120 at the 1948 London Motor Show. The war had just ended and the country was ready to resume and reassemble their lives. Lyons underestimated the appeal of the XK 120, as interest and demand for the vehicle skyrocketed. What was originally going to be a low production car, became a mass produced treasure. The initial cars were constructed from alloy, though the process was slow and tedious. Once Lyons realized there was a high demand for the cars, they were switched to steel bodies. A total of 240 alloy bodied examples were created.

The race prepared cars, the C-Types, were true performance machines, and proved this by winning Le Mans in 951 and again in 1953. Jaguar would go on to claim a total of seven overall victories in their C-Type racers.

This 1952 Jaguar C-Type was offered for sale at the 2007 RM Auctions held in Amelia Island, Florida. It was offered without reserve and estimated to sell between $125,000 - $175,000. The car is a replica, built by David Brown of Invercargill, NZ. It has an aluminum body and tubular chassis constructed from factory drawings which makes this nearly identical to the original. It is powered by a Jaguar 3442cc inline six-cylinder double overhead camshaft engine with dual sand-cast SU carburetors capable of producing about 210 horsepower. It has a C-type intake manifold including an aluminum cold air box and C-type exhaust manifold. There are D-Type Wade 140 cams, lightweight flywheel, and Powermax Hepalite pistons.

Mated to the engine is a Moss four-speed manual gearbox with a C-type top casing. The suspension, brakes, and most other mechanical components were built to C-Type specifications. The tribute to the C-Type continues to the interior, where the pieces are genuine C-Type, which includes switches, aluminum seats, steering wheel and instrumentation.

In nearly every way, this is an exact replica of the real thing. An original C-Type would command a seven digit price tag; this replica sold for $137,500.

By Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2007