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…………..and now for something completely different.

 

Only 6 Royales were ever made, all of which survive intact to this day and have become some of the most famous and well documented automobiles on earth with all their details, history and provenance well known.

 

For a change of pace, today's new subject is a "one-off', but only in the sense that it is a highly specialized, modified, single example of the standard model which was manufactured in relatively large numbers, and was at the time the dream of just about every young auto enthusiast worldwide.

 

If I revealed the slightest bit more, you'd know immediately what we have here.

 

JZG

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Looks a bit like Virgil Exner's Simca special with the plexiglass bubble canopy but I don't think many people lusted after a Fiat 1100 with a Simca 8HP engine :)

 

Wilson

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You're both sort of have the right idea and you're in the correct time-frame with your guesses, with one major exception: the cars mentioned were Automobile show "dream-cars", patterned after early jet fighter planes to evoke a whole new image for the rapidly awakening and growing post-war American car industry, whereas the image I posted is of a real, British, functional andl production-car speed-record breaking car you could actually buy and enjoy as a daily driver back in the day.

 

Additional hints……….. so closely based on the production model / car was the car shown, that it could be brought back to original configuration today in less than a day in the shop and no one would be the wiser. Don't forget, this was the production-car record they were after, and the scope of the rules governing what you were permitted to alter was quite narrow.

 

The gentleman responsible for the idea and its development - one of the true legends and Grand Old men of English motosports - is alive and well at age 93 and still in the employ of the Company he worked for when he created this historic example.

 

JZG

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No - larger & faster………but you're getting warmer.

 

Since the opportunity to correct Post # 7377 has passed, I would like to correct it here and now: Grand Old men should read "Grand Old Man of English motorsports".

 

JZG

Edited by John Z. Goriup
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Jaguar it is !

 

The 'bubble' shown above belongs to a '52 Jaguar XK 120 open two-seater.

 

In '49, Jaguar introduced the XK 120. When asked if that model designation stood for anything in particular, William Lyons, Chairman of Jaguar, said iit stood for the approximate speed the car had achieved while setting the speed record for production cars on a closed autoroute in Belgium, near Jabbeke.

 

In 1953 a Pegaso Z-102 broke that record on the same piece of road.

 

As soon as the news was broken to William Lyons he called Norman Dewis, Jaguar's legendary chief testing engineer and asked what he intended to do about this situation. Dewis, completely undaunted, walked out to the factory floor and commandeered an unfinished XK 120 Roadster and set to work with his team. They mounted a full belly-pan, created the alloy metal tooneau cover, added the streamlined headlights, performed maximum of permissible tuning on the engine ( jetting, ignition advance and rebuilt the engine to optimum specs ) and as the crowning touch remover the top and installed the Perspex 'bubble' canopy which was biolted down for safety once Dewis was seated and ready for the record attempt.

 

The final touch was to inflate the tires, which had been sanded nearly slick, to 50 psi and off he went.

 

Dewis smashed the Pegaso record with an officially verified speed of 172.4 miles per hour, returning the title of "Fastest Production Car in the World" to Jaguar with the car shown below.

 

You're up, Manoleica.

 

JZG

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I did originally think XJ13 (or the replica one) but that doesn't seem to fit the description. Seeing the actual car though... I'm surprised that I've never come across it before.

 

Edit; You wouldn't want to be too tall!

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Ah I was thinking of one of the MGA based LSR cars - EX179 or 182.

 

Jaguar still have a department that ever so carefully "prepares" the cars handed out to road testers etc. My son worked in it for a while a few years ago. They were then preparing the diesel XJ6 that appeared on Top Gear, driving from somewhere in Europe to Blackpool. It had lots of little details different to a standard car. Just like Autocar's 150MPH E Type in the 1961 road test. No standard E Type at that point would do much more than a genuine 140 MPH (the speedometers were intentionally rather optimistic).

 

Wilson

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I'm on a firearms course for the next few days, anyone who feels so inclined may Post..

 

How about this one? Hope you can't get this from the number plate!

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