Thursday, April 20, 2017

A Very Special XK120 Built by XKs Unlimited

LT-1 Jaguar

I have always been a life long Jaguar enthusiast and frustrated car designer. It has been my goal for a while to build my own car from scratch. I thought this would be the best way to combine both my passions. Build a semi-modern sports car with basic Jaguar components and style it to look like a Jaguar.
The Jaguar factory built a few light weight alloy racing bodies for the XK120 chassis which I thought would be a good basis for my car. I started with a basic LT-1 body shape and added details to it that I liked. The side exhaust, the head fairing, the extra air opening in the front gave it a more aggressive look.
Then I started designing the chassis. The basic structure is loosely based on a C Type chassis but much stiffer and with modern all independent suspension both front and rear. The rear uses a Halibrand style quick change differential with E Type axles and up rights. After that the rest of the suspension was custom fabricated by XKs Unlimited.
In the front I started with XJ up-rights and lower a-arms and an E Type steering rack and then fabricated everything else.
All four corners are suspended with custom alloy fully adjustable Koni racing shocks and coil springs.
The interior I tried to capture the factory racing look. The dash shape is a modified D type and all the gauges are Smiths gauges styled to look like the original D type racing gauges.
The heart of any performance sports car is the engine and of course I started with a 3.8 liter E Type motor. I did the usual performance modifications including Carillo rods, JE forged pistons, big valve head, and custom camshafts from XKs Unlimited. Induction was classic Weber 45 DCOEs and ignition was a restored original Vertex Jaguar racing magneto.
The headers and side exhaust were custom fabricated at XKs Unlimited. They sound aggressive and look great. When the car has been run a while the exhaust leave a nice dark pattern down the side of the car that looks like a WWII fighter plane!
The wheels are Dunlop reproduction racing wheels that would have been used on a D type or racing E Type.

To see the car in action with Jay Leno go to:






























www.xksmotorsport.com

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