Jaguar XK150

The XK150 was the ultimate evolution of one of the finest vehicles to be produced in the ’Fifties. As such I’ll happily argue the case for Jaguar’s speedy sports car.

- James Howe 

In the late ’Forties, the arrival ofJaguar’s XK series came as awelcome shock to the automotive establishment. The sleek new sportster from Jaguar was beautiful, fast, surprisingly comfortable and keenly priced in the face of its exclusive competition; while the bespoke Bristol opposite would have cost the best part of £4500 in 1958 (nearly £100,000 in today’s money), the equivalent XK150 would have cost about half that figure. It’s hard to imagine another instance where two genuine rivals were so disparately priced.

Buyers of the XK certainly weren’t being short-changed either. The car’s famous 3.4-litre, twin-cam sixcylinder engine was at the heart of the experience; a characterful and tractable unit that was central to the appeal of so many Jaguar products thereafter. It produced a healthy 220bhp in its highest-spec S iteration, which translated to electrifying performance on the road; 0-60mph in well under eight seconds, along with a heady top speed of over 130mph. By contrast, the Bristol opposite mustered just 105bhp from its 2.2-litre six, making for a 0-60mph time of 13 seconds and a top speed just north of 100mph. It’s clear then that these vehicles were a class apart in performance terms.