On behalf of a friend, I am researching a set of solid steel wheels that came with his RHD 1951 XK120 OTS that was originally shipped to Australia. After he bought it in pieces in Australia, it had a few sets of wheels and these were among them. It appeared that after close examination, that the car MAY have been prepared at the factory for competition. It had many modifications, among other things, that pointed to that including a C-type head. These wheels were marked up and used when he got them. What you see here are the wheels as they are today after re-painting them and re-stenciling the Dunlop logo. This was done some 20 years ago, the car is now gone and only these rims remain.
My question: Are these possibly genuine, early XK120 competition items and, if so, where they available to the general public either from Dunlop or the Jaguar works? Any information about their history would be greatly appreciated.
I have been told (I have not seen the rims personally yet) that they are handed offside and nearside. The round vent holes are therefore angled on each side of the vehicle so as to allow air to be vented more efficiently from each side. All told, these are extremely interesting because of a possible link to competition history. Note: my friend that previously owned the XK120 OTS said that our fellow forum reader Terry McGrath has seen the XK120 mentioned and perhaps he will recall details about these wheels and maybe even the car itself.
What size are the tires? If the wheels are 16“, steel and about 5-1/2" bead to bead, they are the standard XK120 disc wheels that someone has ventilated with a hole saw or a mill. I will note that they are still fitted with the pegs for the hub covers. You would think that the competition department would buy these straight from Dunlop already modified and they would not bother to fit the pegs. It would be a lot easier to drill the holes in the center section before it was welded to the rim.
Reportedly they are 16" rims but it is not known if they are 5" (early) or 5.5" (later) wide. That is the two widths the XK120 rims came in, correct? Good point Mike about the pegs being attached if from Dunlop originally and made for competition. The Dunlop logo was duplicated from the original on the rims.
Photographs of the original only surviving Ecurie Ecosse XK120 team car that was raced in period by Sir James Scott-Douglas show that it had drilled wheels (at least when it was owned by Tony Hiidebrand of Straight Six), however, they appear to be 3 groups of 3 as opposed to the equidistant 15 shown in the photos. Interesting that when the factory ran XK120s in, for example, the Mille Miglia or Le Mans, they ran with regular steel wheels that were not drilled.
If they were painted runny black you wouldn’t waste a nanosecond trying to ID them. Creative use of a silver rattle can doth not a competition background make… Nor does sticking on the 1960s version of the Dunlop logo…
It didn’t look right to me, but I am not expert in Dunlop logos. For certain the paint seems to have too much metallic.
Ha! You know better than that! There is almost no detail too obscure to obsess over! Besides, virtually everything in the US is shuttering for the next 14-21 days, so we will have LOTS of idle time to fill.
probably hit the nail on the head with a sledgehammer!
There were dozens of XK120’s in the 1950’s and early 60’s where owners drilled holes in their wheels to help brake cooling or make them look more sporty. Also common to drill holes in brakes drums as well.
From an historical perspective if these wheels came off an Australian car love to know which one.
These wheels called Turbo-Vents where the best of them and were handed “made in australia” only about 10 sets made including one set for an Allard and were offered for sale as early as june-july 1951. Most of them survive. The same man who made these owner of 2 XK120’s 660034 and 660214 also did this the brakes drums on one of these 2 cars.
I believe this idea of cutting vent holes in various configurations was a speed shop trick known among racers, the idea being to help the fade problem in racing, along with racing brake shoes and air scoops on the rear brake backing plates, in the early days before wire wheels became more available. I never heard that Jaguar offered vented disc wheels or used them themselves, but they did offer racing brakes and tires and suggested rear air scoops for racing (SB95).
Jaguar had wire wheels in '51 on the C-Types but did not make them available to the public until '52.
This is from the Dec '52 issue of Speed Age magazine, the author Morris Carroll being active in SCCA racing.
Hi Gary.
I can see why you would be asking the question as the drilled rims appear quite often in early raced 120’s.
Here is alloy 660046 presently for sale in New Zealand. Although fully restored the drilled rims may be original to the car.
My car 660405 has the early non self-adjusting front brakes with the air scoops. I’m wondering why the factory discontinued the cooling scoops. Did they let in too much water or crud, perhaps? Or was racing moving away from XK120s…?
The best (only?) way to check the origin of these wheels is to remove the tyre and inner tube (if any) and have a look at the code stamped on the rim. I understand that you don’t have the wheels at present, but still…
The early XK 120 had the following code: DRC 5K x 16 and in small letters the rim version LP 606.
The later XK 120 had: DRC 5½ K x 16 stamped and rim version LP 664.
This would be the confirmation whether this is a modified standard XK 120 disc wheel.
Bob K. offered the advice of removing one of the the Dunlop racing tires from a rim to at least verify if it is an earlier 5" rim. Since the 5-1/2" rims were introduced (I think) from 1954, if these rims are from that era these rims would not interest me as much since I like the “older” stuff. I discovered that on the outside of the later 5.5"rims, near the valve stem as I recall, there is an indentation pressed in that area that is unique to the later 5.5" rims. I know Graham J. and I had this discussion when he was restoring his 1954 FHC which has the later type of rims.
Importantly, for your information I may have misinterpreted the information given to me from the owner of the XK120 about the set of rims I posted: The previous owner had two sets of rims. He clarified for me, if I understand this correctly, the other set that went with the car when sold had the left and right handed rims that allowed air to exit from the brakes because of design of the holes. So, perhaps no directional venting as on the example shown by Terry M. in this posting. While writing this post, I was scratching my head about the left and right handed aspect of these because the opening do not seem to be “vented” like the example that Terry shows. Further to this, the owner has told me that those rims that were vented and were sold with the car were made by “Ajax in Melbourne”. Perhaps Terry M. also knows about that long-gone rim modifying company.
I am still waiting to hear from the owner as to the chassis number of the car, assuming he may wish to divulge it. I also have images of the car wearing the “Ajax” rims and will post them if the previous owner decides to let me do so.
So there you are: because of the special modifications that this Australian delivery RHD 1951 XK120 perhaps (not proven) had from the factory, we naturally are interested in finding the history of these rims and any possible association to Dunlop or even the Jaguar works in their manufacture. I now see, regardless of when and how these rims were made, Rob R. pointed out it was relatively common to modify them and perhaps that is the answer there. Relatively common or not, I wish I had them for my future (in my dreams!) race car specification, complete with belly pan, RHD 1950-1952 XK120 OTS. Also, I sure liked viewing that photo and description from the 1952 “Speed Age” that Rob. R submitted. “Speed Age” is one of the many vintage magazines I look at over and over and over… Such a simple time where if a service garage had a big ol’ Sun tester parked in there they could claim to be at the absolute cutting edge of technology (another wish-list dream to own one and actually use it along with the Sun distributer tester that I do own). I swear, if I had a time machine I would much rather live in the post-war heyday of the sporting cars in the United States.
