BRUSSELS POUTS

Sir William Lyons didn't have the monopoly on making the most stylish Jaguar XK120, as these Belgian coachbuilt examples prove

- Johan Dillen

Back in 1952, these two special coachbuilt Jaguar XK120s were wheeled across the very avenue in Belgium where we're standing today. In fact, they were pushed into these exhibition halls, ready for their grande première at the Brussels Auto Salon. This is the story of two extraordinary one-off Jaguars.

Jaguar and Belgium have always had a special relationship. There are the Jabbeke speed records, of course, but there was always the Belgian Iron Lady as well. We are talking about Joska Bourgeois, the driving force behind the Belgian Jaguar operation. After World War Two she walked up to the home of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons and demanded the right to sell his cars in her home country. She wasn't someone who would take no for an answer. Reportedly, Lyons would conduct business with only two women. The other was his private secretary...

Bourgeois showed unbridled ambition. At the time, British companies were allowed only to trade with Commonwealth partners, a problem Bourgeois solved through a partnership with a Canadian pilot she had befriended, resulting in the creation of Jaguar Car Distribution Ltd. Bourgeois fully understood the publicity value of motor shows and made sure she always had 'new Jaguars' to show. At first, she had thrown the Belgian coachbuilder Van den Plas a lifeline by having it assemble 3.5 Saloons from knocked-down kits, in order to profit from lower import taxes. In 1948, for instance, she had presented a two-seat convertible Van den Plas based on an unsold 1939 SS100 chassis, and a convertible version of a 3.5 limousine.

For the Van den Plas family, such efforts came too late: they closed up shop in Belgium in 1949. Only the British activities of Vanden Plas-note the spelling - would continue in the 1950s, under Austin ownership at first.