1951 Jaguar XK120C
Pilots: P. Walker, P. Whitehead
Team: Peter Walker
Race: 1st GC (class S 5.0) at Le Mans in 1951
Ixo - LM 1951 (diecast)
Published 10/15/17
In 1946, the Swallow Sidecar Company became Jaguar Cars. Two years later the new company released the XK120, the first car totally developed by Jaguar. When launched, the XK120 was the fastest production car in the world, good for over 120 mph (192 km/h). And that’s where the car’s name comes from. The XK120 participated in the 24 Hours of Le mans in 1950, managing 12th and 15th places. Consequently, with those results Jaguar decided to produce a full-blown race car, the XK120 Competition. The XK120C had a tubular frame chassis enveloped by an aluminum body designed by Bob Knight. The car’s heart was the Jaguar XK6 engine, an inline-6 with 3441 cm³. With DOHC and hemispherical combustion chambers, it produced 205 hp in race trim.
All in all 53 cars were produced, and for the 24 Hours of Le Mans of 1951 six cars were in the race. This is chassis #XKC-003, that piloted by the Peters Walker and Whitehead came in 1st place overall. This was the first win for Jaguar at Le Mans and the first time the leading car goes over the average speed of 150 km/h (150.4 km/h) during the race.
In scale this XK120C is just a smashing model by Ixo, with an outstanding bang-for-the-buck. I particularly loved the cockpit, and honestly if those hood straps were separate pieces and the exhaust had a hollow tip, this would have been phenomenal. In fact, it would be fair to compare it to my C-Type from AUTOart.
The only thing I’m not so sure about is the color – the BRG is almost an olive drab in my eyes, but I really don’t know if that is historically right or not. However, since there isn’t exactly a definite hew of BRG, I think it’s probably right. Color notwithstanding, this is an AWESOME model.