On the exact same day the Jaguar D-Type lost its crown as the most costly British vehicle ever sold at auction – a title that now belongs to a $22.5m Aston Martin DBR1 – traditional motor vehicles exposed a device that might someday rob the D-Type of its condition as the world’s most expensive Jaguar as well.
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Originally developed in 1954, the XK120 SE was provided to a guy who then tasked Pininfarina with providing the Jag a bit Italian flair. The result was revealed to the world at the 1955 Geneva motor Show, however a short time later it fell off the radar as well as for decades later on it was frequented by personal collectors.
• many costly British vehicles sold at auction
However in 2015 it was bought by CMC, who meant to bring back it to its former glory. Over the two years that complied with 6,750 hours were poured into bringing the very best out of every inch of the XK120, with the new owners even employing 3D printers to recreate the original headlights.
After a painstaking effort, the beautifully completed Jaguar has now been displayed to the world when once again at this year’s Concours d’Elegance at Pebble beach in California, where it completed in a extremely respectable second location in the O-2 Postwar closed class.
Perhaps much more fascinating though is the guy behind the push to restyle XK120 all the method back in 1954. His name was Maximilian Hoffman, a businessman who can be indirectly credited with a few of the finest cars to emerge in America from Europe in the middle part of the 20th century.
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