Recently for fun, a crouching radiator leaper was purchased from
Motorden on ebay, from Brisbane, Australia. This cat has arrived
and compares in interesting similarities and differences with the
original cat that came with my 1950 Mark V from California (and
still resident there).
The cat from Brisbane has the same overall dimensions as the cat
which came with my car. However, there are differences which
require a different casting mold or substantially different
finishing methods.
One difference is the size of the mouth opening as viewed from the
side. The mouth gap is about 7 mm in height and depth from the side
on my original cat. It also has about a 2 mm gap between upper and
lower teeth. On the Brisbane cat, the mouth opening is about 4 mm
height and depth, the teeth nearly clench.
At the base of the original cat has an indent under the rear legs,
i.e. inside the thighs, with the pedestal metal extending only 5 mm
in front of the feet for strength. The Brisbane cat has no
indentation in the inner thigh area and the pedestal metal extends
solidly down to the front of the base from in front of the cat’s
rear knees.
The Brisbane cat has small bubbling in the metal work consistent
with pot metal, similar to the original. The Brisbane cat has a
little more detail in the lines, sharper definition (such as a
slight backbone ridge) not present in my original. However, my
original was rechromed and may have seen major buffing at that
time. My original is very similar to the typical reproduction model
presently available from places like Cordell Newby.
The triangular base of the Brisbane and original cats have similar
concavity on the underside. But, at the start from the edge of the
original cat triangle there is about 5 mm vertical rise before
sculpting moves inward. On the Brisbane cat, this initial shelf is
2-3 mm.
I’ve attempted to load a photo of the two side-by-side into the pre-
xk photo section http://www.jag-
lovers.org/snaps/snap_photo_section_index2.php3?s=pre-xk&pics=1 but
am not sure if posting is accepted yet.
Is the Brisbane cat an original, implying there were variations
among the early cat casting molds, or does it have characteristics
which identify it as a reproduction?–
Roger McWilliams
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–