Along the same thread re Jaguars in the movies, there is a great sequence
early on in the circus movie “The Greatest Show on Earth” (circa 1952)
where the top billing star of the high wire act comes roaring into the
scene driving an early 120 OTS. Kind of makes one cringe as he leaps in and
out over the doors, ignoring the paintwork and cockpit coaming in true
Hollywood style!
Another significant movie with lots of crash-em and bash-em scenes was “On
the Beach”. At least a few irreplaceable examples were written off as a
Sunday race sequence had a group of race drivers (Including Fred Astaire
driving a Ferrari I think) racing literally to the death. This was the 1957
doomsday thriller where the bomb had been dropped, and Australia was the
last holdout for mankind until the radiation arrived.
Anyway, I seem to recall a 120 Coupe getting T boned.
Of course the lovely Ava Gardner drove a duo-tone Austin Healey 100/6 all
over the Aussie countryside with Gregory Peck at her side.
Also, while I’m at it, here are the numbers of the 120 OTS I still must
sell for my cousin’s widow:
1950 XK120, Frame no. 670320
Engine no. W1671-8
Gearbox no. JH3014
Body no. F1422
Originally white with red & biscuit interior trim. The red was quite dark,
like an Oxblood shade. Carpets were bright red. Unfortunately, most of the
trim was replaced in later years with red vinyl.
Rich Chrysler
On The Beach - Mentioned as having an XK in it: interestingly, the author
of the book Neville Shute lived in Aus and raced an XK140 (which I think
had from about new). This was in the 50s. Someone on this list a while
back told he was English originally. He raced as Nevilee Shute Norway.
Regards, John Elmgreen
At 06:56 3/11/97 -0500, you wrote:
On The Beach - Mentioned as having an XK in it: interestingly, the author
of the book Neville Shute lived in Aus and raced an XK140 (which I think
had from about new). This was in the 50s. Someone on this list a while
back told he was English originally. He raced as Nevilee Shute Norway.
Regards, John Elmgreenjohn ithought there was an xk in the movie to but specifically chased up
copy but no australian cars in the movie what they did was use some american
footage of xk,s racing
BTW, if this were the XJ-Lovers list, you’d all be “ketchin’ it” for this
non-topical discussion…keep it going. I have a foot in both boats, and I
prefer this list. Jim W.
RL Chrysler wrote:> Along the same thread re Jaguars in the movies, there is a great sequence
early on in the circus movie “The Greatest Show on Earth” (circa 1952)
where the top billing star of the high wire act comes roaring into the
scene driving an early 120 OTS. Kind of makes one cringe as he leaps in and
out over the doors, ignoring the paintwork and cockpit coaming in true
Hollywood style!
Another significant movie with lots of crash-em and bash-em scenes was “On
the Beach”. At least a few irreplaceable examples were written off as a
Sunday race sequence had a group of race drivers (Including Fred Astaire
driving a Ferrari I think) racing literally to the death. This was the 1957
doomsday thriller where the bomb had been dropped, and Australia was the
last holdout for mankind until the radiation arrived.
Anyway, I seem to recall a 120 Coupe getting T boned.
Of course the lovely Ava Gardner drove a duo-tone Austin Healey 100/6 all
over the Aussie countryside with Gregory Peck at her side.
Also, while I’m at it, here are the numbers of the 120 OTS I still must
sell for my cousin’s widow:
1950 XK120, Frame no. 670320
Engine no. W1671-8
Gearbox no. JH3014
Body no. F1422
Originally white with red & biscuit interior trim. The red was quite dark,
like an Oxblood shade. Carpets were bright red. Unfortunately, most of the
trim was replaced in later years with red vinyl.
Rich Chrysler
John Elmgreen wrote:
On The Beach - Mentioned as having an XK in it: interestingly, the author
of the book Neville Shute lived in Aus and raced an XK140 (which I think
had from about new). This was in the 50s. Someone on this list a while
back told he was English originally. He raced as Nevilee Shute Norway.
Regards, John Elmgreen
Yes Neville Shute, whose full name is Neville Shute Norway, did have a
white 140 back in the 50s. I remember seeing the car at Moorabbin
Airport when I was there as a young Army Pilot(One of the first!).
Neville Shute was an aeronautical engineer before he became a full time
author and was involved in the design of the Airspeed Oxford and the
British built R100 series Airships.
Regards, Col Haywood