Part 5
First inspection
So what exactly had I bought……
To be specific she is a Jaguar XK120 SE Fixed Head Coupe, SE being short for Special Equipment.
Manufactured October 23rd 1952 and despatched to Max Hoffman, the principle Jaguar dealer on the East coast of America on October 26th
There also seems to be a gentle myth about the SE cars, which somehow, and sometimes seems to be confused with a C type head configuration, which also links into an MC description for these cars in the American market
In order for Jaguar to extract more power from the double overhead camshaft designed engine of the C Type cars of 1951-1953 for the endurance racing at Le Mans and the like, Jaguar introduced and developed a more wide angled aluminium head design with bigger ports and different profile camshafts
Ultimately fuel injection was introduced during 1953, being taken to its ultimate form in the short and then long nose D Type cars that were developed for the 1955, 56 and 57 seasons, after which Jaguar temporarily withdrew from formal endurance racing sponsorship leaving the remaining D Type cars to be converted to the famous XKSS configuration, at which point the likes of Steve McQueen becomes part of that legend of 16 completed original cars, sadly with 9 further cars destroyed in the catastrophic fire at Browns Lane in 1957
As far as I can tell, there seems to be a widespread assumption that an SE car had the same C type head, but this is definitely not the case in my car….and I don’t think generally
All I do know is that the SE cars were supposedly rated to have 190 hp as opposed to the standard 160 hp
I’m still slightly confused as to how this can be, because as far as I can tell, the only real difference could be the design of the camshaft because the car I bought, had a pair of 1 1/2 inch SU carburettors which is standard…but there are cars with 8:1 compression whereas mine has 9:1
As part of the upgrades to the car, I planned to increase to 2 inch carbs, the same size as the E Type, and also investigate the possibility of a fast road set of camshafts…..more later
What did immediately and visually set the SE cars apart from their standard siblings was the use of wire wheels as opposed to pressed steel
I’m fairly sure that’s the only real difference so perhaps it was a marketing ploy and a little bit of internal adjustment of the engine, but nothing fundamentally dramatic
But back to the story…….like an eager child at Christmas time, I was up early the following day….I had no where to store anything I took off the car really….as shed 2 didn’t exist…but what I did want to see was were there any hidden surprises of old last possessions within the car….
Answer…
Yup….this beauty….
And a couple of clues as to the owner…
Clearly a classic Jaguar type as a pipe smoker….
and this magnetic held sliding key holder with a Chicago address….and a blank wage packet from Florida..
Who knows….
Sadly this is the only history I have for the car…and thanks to the overly protective world we now live in the staff at Jaguar Heritage who kindly provided the Identity Certificate I obtained could and would not include the name of the original owner..they did years earlier for my EType…buy hey Ho…we all seem to need protecting from ourselves so it would appear……I ask you…data protection…..really….the guy would be over 100 by now so sadly guaranteed to be deceased….and yet…”…oh no sir….rules is rules…..”….pathetic….