While this isn’t a brand spanking new production car just rolling out of the concept stage, or even one from the 1970s to pair it properly with this week’s Decade of Dominance, it is a car that I thought worth noting.
I saw it the other day while sitting on my porcelain office chair, checking emails and scouring YouTube. The only way I could describe it is as my own dream car. Forget anything else, the 1951 Jaguar XK 120 is only newsworthy because I want one. And if you love Jags, muscle cars, and modern engineering as much as I do, you’d want one too.
It’s like this ’51 Jag, a sweet AMC Hot Rod, and a German engineer had a threesome. Yeah, it’s that good.
The car appeared on Jay Leno’s long time website and YouTube channel ”Jay Leno’s Garage.” Leno doesn’t just like to talk about the cars in his own garage, in fact, the majority of the time he’s bringing in cars, whether it’s his friend’s car or one that a company would like to show off.
The car is a 1951 Jaguar XK 120 hot rod built by Jason Len of XKs Unlimited. Len’s 1951 XK right off the bat looks different. The body is unpainted aluminum instead of fiberglass, custom headers, tailpipes coming out just behind the drivers side front wheel, and uses Brooklyn screens instead of the stock windshield. Oh, and there’s a sweet headrest for the driver.
The engine is a 3.8 lt straight 6 out of an E type Jaguar redone with “high compression, big valves, high performance cams, Weber carburetors, a period vertex magneto, aluminum fly wheels” to crank out 300 hp, complimented with a modern 5 speed manual transmission.
Jason Len built an all tube frame and gave it independent suspension with Wilwood racing brakes. Tie all of that with the aluminum body and a nice new fuel cell, the car weighs about a thousand pounds lighter than the stock XK 120. This car is just fast enough to really enjoy the road and roadster enough to hear that glorious straight 6 belt out.
Bottom line, this is the coolest Jaguar I have ever seen. Cooler than, dare I say it, the F Type coupe. Kudos to you Jason Len for making me hate my bank account just a bit more.