| The XK 120 offered state of
the art looks and performance on it launch in 1948 and was immediately
in demand both as the ultimate road going sports car and as a class
winning race and rally car. Demand greatly out stripped supply while
Brown's Lane adapted the original hand built aluminium roadsters
for series production. |
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| ZL 8060: The late Frank Bigger was a skilled self-taught mechanic and keen amateur racing driver. He purchased XK 120 chassis 660746 (engine W2942-8) from Cavey's, where he was later to become Service Manager, in October 1951. A month later he entered it in the international Daily Express Rally in Britain the first event in the car's extensive competition career. Most Irish races were run on handicap and during 1952 it progressively lost its bumpers, headlights and windscreen in an attempt to gain an advantage in a host of races and hillclimbs. The highlights of the year were winning the Cox Memorial Trophy outright in a rain soaked Curragh in June and racing in the Wakefield Trophy against C Types and Formula 2 cars at the same venue in September. Race appearances continued throughout the 1950's but at a lesser rate as Frank started entering the Monte Carlo rally each January. (He won outright in 1956 with Ronnie Adams and Derek Johnston in a works Mk VII.)Though too large to be really competetive in Irish rallies ZL 8060 also took 4th and 5th places overall in the 1953 and 1954 Circuit of Ireland events. ZL 8060 started life in 'Sun Beige' (with red wheel centres) but was later painted racing green and then red as it changed hands to Cork in 1967 then Kilkenny in the 1970's. The car was last seen in 1979 when it was competing in a Dublin University MC Night Test Trial. |
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| ZO 2259 : Leslie Spivack took delivery of his white XK120 in the Spring of 1952. It spent week days parked on Stephen's Green while he studied in the College of Surgeons but it spent its weekends racing on road circuits around Ireland. The Ulster and Tourist Trophies in Northern Ireland were rounds of European, and sometimes even World, Championships and attracted cars and drivers on a par with Le Mans and Spivack did well to get an entry with this company. The most prestigious races in the South were the Wakefield Trophy in the Curragh and the Leinster Trophy. These attracted all of the local racers, with a wide variety of machinery, and a few exotic foreign entries lured by the prize money. The photographs show the grid at the delayed start of the 1952 Leinster Trophy in Wicklow Town. Spivack is No 12, behind the over heating MG Special of Lyall Collen but the interesting car is No 7. This is the stripped out BMW Brescia of Gil Tyrer, one of a pair of special bodied 328's built to compete in the 1940 Mille Miglia and widely believed to have been the 'inspiration' behind the XK 120's dramatic body design | ||
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| ZO 908 : From the second batch of CKD kits, chassis 660807 (engine W3140-8) was assembled in late 1951, 6 years before the late John Dickenson arrived in Cavey's to make the tea and work as a gopher for the mechanics. The car was bought by the owners of Gateaux Cakes in Finglas before passing into the ownership of a successful businessman and amateur racing driver. As the car changed hands John worked his way up to bodywork preparation then car assembly and engine building but always promising himself that he would one day own what he considered to be the most beautiful of all Jaguars, an XK120 roadster. He didn't realise his dream until 1983, 4 years after he left Cavey's, when he found ZO 908 decaying in a Donegal churchyard. The car then spent 3 years in his Artane garage, well known to Jaguar owners of the 1980s and 90s, before he started on a meticulous 2 ½ year restoration. The quality of the work and the thought that went into it makes John's car exceptional and it is better to drive now than when it was new. The twin cam six now has S type heads and cams and breathes through a self designed exhaust system. John originally restored the bodywork as original with full spats but has since converted it to wire wheels and more practical slimlines. The car also carries some personal momentos of Cavey's Charlemont Place assembly plant and Camden Street garage - a 'Frank Cavey & Sons Ltd' badge on the dash and a hand made 'XK 120 3.4' badge on the tail. ZO 908 had many adventures in its life but one of the highlights was when Stirling Moss took the wheel for some high speed laps of the Dundalk Street Racing circuit in 1989. Sadly John passed away in May 2010 and he is greatly missed by friends and Jaguar enthusiasts throughout Ireland. |
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| IN 8091 : Chassis 660747 (engine W2951-8) was a kit supplied by Browns Lane in April 1951 and assembled by Cavey's a month later with bronze paintwork and a beige interior. In July it was supplied to Mc Cairns Motors, a large company holding the Irish franchise to assemble Vauxhalls amongst other marques, for Mr Arthur White who registered it at the hotel near Sneem, Co Kerry where he holidayed each Summer. Seven years later the car was sold to a Mr Arneill in Northern Ireland who kept the IN 8091 registration as both North and South were still using the original UK and Ireland numbering system at this time. In September 1962 it passed to a young Belfast hairdresser, John Gordon Sommerville. Mr Sommerville was courting a girl in Dublin and he found the 3.4 litre Jaguar too heavy on petrol for his frequent trips South so, a year later, he bought a smaller car and sold IN 8091 to Robert Brownlees. At this stage the car was painted red but Robert had it resprayed ivory and ran it for 5 years before taking it off the road for some repairs. It was not until the early 1980s that he started to dismantle the car, but missing driving it he purchased another XK 120 which he ran for 14 years. This newer XK took Robert and his wife Ella to many JDC meetings in Northern Ireland and to the annual weekends with the IJDC before he sadly passed away in 2007. The dismantled IN 8091 passed through the hands of a number of dealers in the UK before ending up with XK enthusiast Stefano Rota in Bergamo, Italy. Stefano is researching the history of the car while undertaking a nut and bolt restoration to restore it to its original condition when it left Camden Street. |
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| * The first XK 120 registered in
Dublin was ZL 454, bought by Gratton's of Dame Street in the Summer
of 1950 and raced by the late Maurice Cavey in the Phoenix Park
the following year. The Jaguars were handbuilt without jigs or the
benefit of factory manuals. Usually one or two examples of each
model were imported almost fully built first for the mechanics to
dismantle and reassemble, making their own notes and diagrams to
assist them with the CKD kits which followed. Drawings would also
be made for suppliers to produce items such as glass, interiors
and radiators which would be locally sourced. |
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Photos of ZL 8060 and ZO 2259 are from
the Frank Bigger Collection courtesy of Frank's daughter JoAnn Hodgson.
If you have
photos or memories of other Irish assembled XK's please Contact Us