Over the years, Jaguar offered the world with plenty of timeless designs. The XK120 is one of those vehicles, numbering something like 12,000 units manufactured from 1948 to 1954. The fastest production car at the time, the XK120 birthed a handful of special models such as the lovely leaping cat here.
One of the rarest classic Jaguar cars of all time, the SE by Pininfarina is a one-off gifted with Italian bodywork and the profile of an a four-wheeled angel. Delivered new to Austrian gentleman Max Hoffman, who used to import exotic vehicles in New York at the time, the gorgeous Jaguar went on to be showcased in all its glory to the public at the 1955 Geneva Motor Show.
Fast-forward to 2015, and that’s when Classic Motor Cars got hold of the XK120 SE by Pininfarina. Before actually restoring the car, CMC stripped all of the unoriginal bits and bobs the previous owner put on the car, including the burgundy paintwork. Despite the odds, the company managed to restore every little nut and bolt to original condition. The items that were missing and virtually impossible to come by - including the lights – have been 3D-printed.
“The rear window was missing so we also had to scan the window aperture and have a new rear screen made from the scan data,” declared David Brassily, chariman of the CMC operating board. Following the aesthetic restoration, including the refurbishing of 80 percent of the original chrome elements, Classic Motor Cars went on to breathe new life into the C-Type Head inline-6.
The 3.4-liter engine depends on a double SU H6 carburetor and develops something in the ballpark of 180 horsepower (182 PS) at 5,300 rpm, a similar setup and output to what the mill had back in the 1950s. All this blood, sweat, and elbow grease won CMC second place at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for the 0.2 Postwar Closed class.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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