Production: 1951
Production Type: For Competitions
Produced: 3
Jaguar XK120 LT (Lightweight) was a special model created as a reserve option for the 1951 Le Mans race.
In 1951, Jaguar Cars Ltd developed three special Jaguar XK120 LT (Lightweight) which, should the Jaguar C-Types not be ready, would replace them in the upcoming Le Mans competition.
The lightweight models differed from the regular Jaguar XK120 in a number of changes:
However, the Jaguar C-Types were ready (and even took first place), and the Jaguar XK120 LT cars had a different fate.
All three cars (LT1, LT2 and LT3) were sent to the Browns Lane plant until Charles Hornburg, Jaguar's West Coast importer, spotted them during one of his many visits to the plant, probably in July 1951. He bought the two cars that were completed (LT2 and LT3) to promote Jaguar in the US and compete in various competitions. Hornburg called these cars the Jaguar XK120 "Silverstone", although Jaguar never used or endorsed this name. In 1953 and 1954 the cars were sold and their further fate could not be established.
The third LT1, which at that time was already without a chassis, remained at Brown's Lane until 1953, when it fell into the hands of Bob Berry, one of the Jaguar employees. He put the car on his own chassis with an engine. The car eventually made its way to North America, where it was driven by Peter Price at various West Coast tracks. According to many sources, today the LT1, restored to its original form, is in a private collection. It was not possible to find information about this unique exhibit, but there are a couple of worthy replicas that took years to create (one of them is shown in the photographs).
According to a number of sources, the cars were based on the XK engine with a C-Type head, although by the time the models were ready, the Jaguar C-Type cars for which this engine was intended were not yet ready (perhaps the engine was already ready or a preliminary one was used prototype). The models also used the standard chassis and suspension from the Jaguar XK120.
Only a number of characteristics and modifications that affect performance indicators are reliably known:
Although many parts from the standard Jaguar XK120 were used , catalogs and documentation for the Lightweight models could not be found that could shed light on the exact parameters of the model.