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StarLight Garage presents another rare, underrated and forgotten automobile form the 1950s, the Jaguar XK120 Supersonic by Ghia from 1953.
A car from the golden age of car design, the world of supersonic flight and designed by an Italian soul.
Enjoy!
It all started in 1953 when the Italian designer Giovanni Savonuzzi created this beautiful one-off Alfa Romeo, which it was meant to race in the Mille Miglia. At that time this design was so revolutionary for Alfa and caused a shockwave feeling around the world, now many decades later is widely remembered as one of the most significant “jet age” designs of the 1950s.
Giovanni Savonuzzi named his creation “Supersonic” (something from the world of supersonic flight is told me).
But tragedy knocks on Alfa Romeos door when the first Supersonic body was involved in an accident during the Mille Miglia, the car gets pretty nasty damaged and gets on fire too, so nothing left for Alfa to do and they scrapped the car.
After the first onglorious end of the first Supersonic, Savonuzzi was hired by Luigi Segre (Ghia’s commercial director) to create a limited production run of his new, ground breaking design.
Therefore the Fiat 8V platform was taken to serve as the base for the production version, one of the main reasons was for sure its relatively cheapness compared to similar expensive chassis from Alfa and Maserati. In total fifteen of these Fiats were dressed with these remarkable Supersonic bodies by Ghia itself, unfortunatly only 10 of them survived and still exist nowadays.
What happen with the other five is not know, they could be wrecked or scrapped, but maybe one or two are just hanging around in a barn and waiting for someone to open the door and let the first sunlight beam fall on its hood ... the guy who will open the door will be a very lucky guy!
One day a French Jaguar importer, Royal Elysees get in touch with Ghia somewhere in 1954 and asked for two Jaguar XK120s fitted with a Supersonic body. The car at the pictures are one of the two cars.
This car also got a revised cylinder head allowing the installation of three Weber carburettors to be fitted in place of the standard configuration with two SU carburettor. After the modification the cars power increased with plus 70 horses, making the power on the rear wheels grow from 160 to 220 horsepower.
When you look the Jaguar XK120 Supersonic specially in real live, nobody can deny it's metallic beauty. It's for sure one of the finest designs from the automotive golden age of car design, the most sad of it is that this car (like here on this forum too) doesn't get the attention it really deserves.
Written by StarLight for SLG
Specifications
Engine: Cast iron, inline-6
Position: Front longitudinal
Aspiration: Natural
Valvetrain: DOHC, 2 Valves per cylinder
Fuel feed: Twin SU H6 carburettors
Displacement: 3442 cc / 210.0 in³
Bore: 83 mm / 3.27 in
Stroke: 106 mm / 4.17 in
Compression: 7.0:1
Power: >164 kw / 220 hp @ 5000 rpm
Torque: 264.38 nm / 195 ft lbs @ 2500 rpm
Body frame: Aluminum over steel frame
Front tires: 6.00x16
Rear tires: 6.00x16
Front brakes: Girling hydraulic drums
Front brake size: x 305 mm / x 12 in
Rear brakes: Girling hydraulic drums
Rear brake size: x 305 mm / x 12 in
Steering:Re-circulating ball
Front suspension: Double wishbones w/torsion bar, telescopic shock absorbers
Rear suspension: Live Axle w/half slliptic springs, Girling hydrualic shock absorbers
Weight: 1200 kg / 2646 lbs
Wheelbase: 2591 mm / 102 in
Front track: 1295 mm / 51 in
Rear track: 1270 mm / 50 in
Length: 4394 mm / 173.0 in
Width: 1562 mm / 61.5 in
Height: 1245 mm / 49 in
Transmission: 4-speed manual gear
Ratios: 1
Top speed >214 kph / 133 mph
0 - 60 mph <9.8 seconds
0 - 100 mph <30 seconds
THE OTHER JAGUARS ARE HERE:
