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| XK150 "S" Gondal Collection racing Sholavaram
here is an interesting piece on one of the Gondal XK150's
Drop head gorgeous
21 Jun '02
Text: Srinivas Krishnan
Photos: Deepak Tolani
Breathtaking looks, stunning performance. The Jaguar XK150 S
I have been on the lookout for a 1:18 Bburago scale model of the Jaguar XK120 to add to my tiny collection of classic cars. If I had all the money in the world, along with my favourite Mercedes 300 SL gullwing, I would love to own the XK120 fixed head coupe, one of the most beautiful automobiles to grace this planet. Not just awesome to look at, but fast too. It was the fastest production car in the world, capable of touching 120 mph (192 kph) – hence the name.
But Jaguars were always elusive. I don't know whether you remember, the first Jag we featured was a regal Mark II, in the first ever monthly issue of BSM over three years back. Since then, these cats were always slinking away from me. I even found an XK120 in a store abroad, but of the wrong size, 1:24. My bad luck with Jags ran out finally, when on one fine day in April I came face to face with Himanshu Sinhji, the yuvraj of Gondal's XK150 – that too, of the right proportions, 1:1.
Road and track
Restored and maintained, you could say, almost to a fault, the XK150 is sparkling, like it just rolled out of Coventry in 1960. But there's one difference. Such loving care and affection couldn't have come from any assembly line worker over there. There's not a spot of dust on the hard-to-clean crevices of the wire wheels, the insides of the wheel arches are devoid of any road muck, the surface is buffed and polished to a high degree.
This, after it was driven all the way down from the erstwhile princely state of Gondal in Gujarat to Mumbai. The car was off to Pune the next day to make other classic car owners green with envy at the Blue Diamond vintage and classic car rally. Did it walk away with any honours? Of course, the concours d'elegance for cars bu ilt between 1941 and 1960, among others.
But there's something more special about this Jaguar – it is one of the S versions. Like today's sporty supercharged R-monikered Jags, going for the S option got you a performance package – more about this later. Also, it's one of the two XK150s in our country, the other being a part of the Gondal collection – yup, two XK150s in the same stable.
Though it had a life span of only four years, the 150 would be Jaguar's most profitable XK. 9,395 units were manufactured across three body styles (a hard top coupe, 2+2 seating drop head and a two-seater roadster), and most of them exported. While an XK150 S hard top is rare, with just 193 built, even this particular model you see in these pages – an S version drop head with right-hand drive – is equally hard to come by, with only 19 of them built in a production run of 104 units.
One of them was originally ordered brand new by the maharaja of Dharampur, who obviously had good taste – and was thrifty too. That's because the XK150 offered as much glamour as an Aston Martin, but was substantially way down the price ladder, at just US $3,600 when it was launched in early 1957. The maharaja, in fact, went one up and ordered the more powerful S version. The Jag subsequently entered the Gondal collection, and was often seen racing at the Sholavaram track near Chennai – where it had several wins to its credit. For all its bulk, you would think that competing would be difficult. Not if you knew about that legendary engine lurking beneath that sensuous hood.
Motor trend
Go around to the rear of the car, and see a little enamelled circle on the boot with the words 'Winner Le Mans 1951 1953 1955 1956 1957' on it – Jaguar's discreet reminder of what their straight six can do when it's pushed for 24 hours at a stretch.
The Coventry-based manufacturer's 3442 CC inline six with a twin cam head was their crown jewel. This engine, in standard spec with twin SU carbs, offered 160 bhp at 5100 revs. It was first destined to be used in a sedan a year later, in 1950, but canny William Lyons, the legendary co-founder of Jaguar felt that it would attract more attention in a sports car. So the engine found itself nestling in the bay of the seminal XK120, where it achieved phenomenal success. It would then go on to power various Jags, including the XK140, XK150 and the visceral E-Type, until the engine's production was stopped in 1986. And in Le Mans, the race-prepped 3.4 powered the C-Type to victory in 1951 and 1953, and landed the D-Type a hat-trick.
It was Lyons who briefed his designers Bill Heynes, Claude Baily and Wally Hassan on what he expected from the engine. Though he knew that 160 bhp could be achieved by using a simple overhead valve pushrod unit, Lyons insisted that the engine be styled to look like those found on the Grand Prix cars of the 1930s. Which is why the engine has exotic twin overhead camshafts and hemispherical combustion chambers – not only should it look good, but powerful too.
Today, when I open the long hood of the XK, and drool at Lyons' durable work of art, I actually wonder why the car even needs this hood, which conceals something so exquisite that performed just as well as it looked. That red paint actually meant that they are competition-spec cylinder heads borrowed from the C-Type. The presence of those three SU carburettors explains the S in this XK150 S. The standard 3.4 was tweaked to offer 190 bhp in the XK150, which Jaguar – and its customers – felt was not enough. So in the spring of 1958, they introduced the S option, which took the output up to a heady 252 bhp at 5500 rpm. Can't wait, right?
Car and driver
The facia is classic Jaguar style, with a bank of toggle switches and Smiths gauges in the centre, including two large displays for the rpm and the speedo marked in miles per hour. At the press of a button, the cat starts up... and doesn't disappoint. The ferocious growl that emerges from the two exhausts befits its feline nature, all right. Shift with little difficulty into first, and let go.
The jaguar on the long, curvaceous hood – perhaps the most evocative of all hood ornaments to date – seems to leap forward to catch a hapless prey. We are on Mumbai's Marine Drive, and the Jaguar moves along briskly through all its four forward gears, acquiring speed steadily. And the steering, which is initially mildly heavy, becomes lighter once it attains a comfortable speed. The engine is at its most relaxed now, with the speedo needle happily staying at the 50 mph (80 kph) mark. All this while I thought that an engine with such incredible sporting credentials would be a nasty, difficult-to-tame beast, greedy for throttle juice. But no, it is surprisingly civilised and smooth, and does not mind just crawling – no jerks, no sense of being uncomfortable. A clear stretch, and it is you who's begging for more.
No problem. With a roar, the XK150 is propelled forward, and since there is so much torque on hand, you don't even have to downshift. A characteristic of this powerplant is that its pulling power is available across gear ratios, and is always willing to step in like a well trained English butler when you ring for one. Be it boulevard cruising, burning rubber on highways or fighting it out on the track, this powerplant can do it all – including the speedo needle almost touching the indicated 140 mph (224 kph) and a zero to 100 mph (160 kph) timing inside of 17 seconds.
Obviously, with such performance on tap, stopping force had better be equally good. The XK150 became the first production car in the world to get disc brakes on all four wheels – discs being Jaguar's little Le Mans winning secret. Another factor for replacing the drum brakes with the servo assisted Dunlop discs was that the XK150 was much heavier than its predecessors. However, wire wheels were also part of the S package, though they were more popular for making braking more effective by dissipating heat from the drums. Ringing the wire wheels are Avon Turbospeed 6.00 V 16" rubber.
The ride is quite firm, and does not cushion you from the road surface – a quality that was unexpected. Later on, Himanshu tells me that he was trying to change the damping of the rear springs to make it more sporty, otherwise the suspension settings are normally soft. The suspension set-up is independent at front, and has a live axle at the rear with leaf springs. Even with this rather dated package, the XK handles fairly well and is predictable enough for a car of its era. But at the same time, it does not feel sure-footed enough, and as Himanshu says, it's roadholding is not as good as his Merc. Which Merc? Why, the 300 SL roadster of course! (Pant, pant.)
Classic & sports car
Even though it looks heavy, and has more sedan-like lines rather than raw sports car looks, the XK150 is simply fantastic to the eyes – jutting headlamp cowls, a sensuous hood, superbly integrated and stylish chromed tail-lamps, all details that go on to make the big picture. And its owner has taken pains to ensure that the XK looks a million pounds too. For instance, the paint scheme is the original Carmen Red which Jaguar offered then. The wire wheels are authentic, and so is the pristine mohair top. The upholstery has been put together by a person in England who originally worked on the XK150 in Coventry.
I guess any Jag that is prefixed by the alphabets X and K makes it an instant classic. Using the same box section chassis, the 150 would be the last in the XK120 series, but was the most refined of them all. Along with the disc brakes, it got a single-piece curved windscreen, and other little details like two tiny red lights atop the parking lamps to indicate that the lights are on. Compared to the original, this Jag has girth all around. The reason being the all important American market was asking for more creature comforts, space and civil road behaviour. But that did not in any manner affect performance. Or its attractiveness. |
27th May 2008, 12:36
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Jaguars Racing in India 
