While onlookers gawped in jaw-on-the-floor wonder as the Jaguar XK120 made its show-stopping debut at the 1948 London Motor Show, there were skeptics who questioned the attainability of the speed implied by its name. Naysayers soon ate their words when in May 1949 an XK120 with aero- screens and undertray averaged 132.6 MPH for the flying mile on the Jabbeke autoroute in Belgium. With cars in standard trim capable of 120 MPH, the XK120 was quite simply the world’s fastest production car. As for XK, that stands for the advanced alloy-headed 3.4L 6-cylinder twin-overhead-cam XK engine, which debuted in the XK120 and powered the C-type to Le Mans wins in 1951 and 1953. The XK120 also spearheaded Jaguar’s drive into the all- important American export market, and, as legendary New York importer Max Hoffman pointed out, was “the first British-made luxury car to offer conventional left-hand drive.” Hoffman’s ads also enthused: “The fleet, low European lines attract admiring glances everywhere.” That last statement is perhaps most aptly applied to the XK120 fixed head coupe, which joined the lineup in 1951 with a sublime, streamlined tear-drop profile that clearly paid homage to the legendary prewar Talbot-Lago T150 SS. Indeed, as the XK120 evolved through the XK140 and on to the final XK150, the aesthetics of the XK120 fixed head coupe were never bettered. Compared with its raw, open roadster counterpart, the XK120 fixed head coupe was altogether more refined, more fully equipped and better appointed, with beautiful burl walnut dash and door-top cappings in place of plain leather, improved ventilation, roll-up windows, opening quarterlights and even external door handles. Augmenting the trunk was a useful parcel shelf behind the seats, providing enough space for a well-behaved Labrador or Beagle, perhaps. It was a measure of the XK120 fixed head coupe’s comparative luxury and refinement that it was actually more expensive than the open roadster, but it was nevertheless still a relative bargain at $4,065, certainly compared to other exotic European coupes that struggled to match its pace. In comparison to the roadster, the fixed head coupe was an altogether less hectic driving experience, more suited to scenic touring for couples who actually wanted to talk to one another and arrive at a night club without looking like they’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. This Suede Green, left-hand drive 1952 Jaguar XK120 Fixed Head Coupe with a complementing green leather interior and carpets has been a stalwart of the Rick Grant Collection since 1974. Its first known owner was Jacob Snyder of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, who sold the car to Dr. Dick Dickinson of Syracuse, New York, in 1968. Dickinson later sold the car to George Cookson, also of Syracuse, who sold it to Grant in 1974 via International Motor Cars Ltd. in Cincinatti, Ohio. Copies of the 1957 Pennsylvania and 1976 Ohio titles serve as documentation Moreover, it was extensively restored in 2008 by Euro Classics of Dayton, Ohio, with attention paid to correct and authentic detail, which is clearly seen in the refurbishment of the interior sourced from Original Specification Jaguar Interiors. Restoration receipts from Euro Classics document the restoration, during which most Jaguar parts were sourced from XKs Unlimited and Welsh Enterprises. It’s also pleasing to see body-color matched knock-off wire wheels rather than twinkling chrome affairs, which many purists feel detract from the pure and largely unadorned essence of the fixed head coupe.
