British archaeology

John Elmgreen and all,

I call your attention to the April “Jaguar Driver” page 5. Guy Broad has apparently uncovered
the earliest known RHD XK-120 DHC (667009 -reg# NYX854). It was located in a barn.

Also, Philip Porter’s page 7 article on Jaguar’s look at alternate gearboxes is very
interesting. Here’s a summary - In 1946, Bill Heynes wrote to William Lyons, detailing four
alternatives, under consideration, to the then current double helical Moss gearbox: (1)
existing synchromesh gearbox with single helical gears (2) inertia lock synchromesh (they
considered producing a GM gear box under license but thought that paying 8 to 12 shillings
per box for rights was excessive!) (3) French Cotal gearbox and (4) a De Normanville design.
The Cotal box (common on the French exotics of the day) was, I believe, a very elegant
preselection device that was switch actuated. A marriage of the Cotal box with Lucas
electrics would have been very interesting! Nothing came from this exercise, but Porter
surmises that Moss production problems drove Jaguar to press on with an automatic
transmission. The complete article might be good to post, provided we are not infringing on a
copywrite.

Regards-
Mike Carpenter