Hello all,
These plans for a model XK120 OTS appeared in the November 1951 Popular Science. The first time I saw the plans I was 14 and I really wanted to build it. Somehow I managed to lose the issue and when in 1968 I wrote to the magazine asking for a copy of that issue I, not surprisingly, never heard a response. I imagine the letter was gleefully crumpled into a ball and someone “scored a basket” in the office trash can. A half century later I finally found it again. If you, as the article suggests you may, “Got a yen for a Jag?” then this could be a way for you to get one at a bargain price. Aside from the lovely choice of car the editors chose, it is a nostalgic look back at the glory days of Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics. I suspect that perhaps back then there was more time than money (remember when people sat on the front porch after dinner?) and these magazines continually worked to devise ways for the average guy to have something nice “on the cheap” and have the dual satisfaction of having built it oneself. Having been amply blessed to have the real thing,I never did end up building this model but if someone builds one from these plans it would be fun to show the results here.
By the way, note that in the second image in the article there is pinned to the back wall of the workbench an image of a black XK120 OTS that was taken from the circa 1949 “The Jaguar XK Super Sports Two- Seater” brochures. Very charming and a detail many of you will readily recognize although I did not in 1968!
P.S. This is only a tiny example that I am waay too lost in the past and tend not to be very firmly planted in the present time, for what it has become. On that theme, psychologists could probably write entire books about why we desire these cars and dive so deeply into the history of them. Anyone have a working time machine I can borrow? I know what time period I would like to live in…
