Glorious growler

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MOCAŠ

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
7,345
Location
West London
Car
SLK
Walking along Dovehouse St this evening, I heard a glorious, rumbly growl coming from the King's Road, at least 100 yards away. I looked up but couldn't see anything. Then, a couple of seconds later, I saw the umistakealble silhouette of a dark-coloured XK150 in the distance as it passed the end of Dovehouse St. Definitely a car that you hear before you see it...

It occured to me that it must have been the same one that I'd added to my Spotted in London thread after seeing it parked in Marylebone last week (below). This was confirmed about half an hour later when I saw (and heard :)) it again, this time turning into Knaresborough Place. I've no idea what has been done to the engine, but I doubt it's still the same 3.8 litre straight six that it had back in 2003, when it was auctioned by BCA with an estimate of less than £15000. Perhaps the XKMotorsports.com badge on the bootlid is a clue to its having been seriously fettled (and, it seems, restored) since.

xk150.jpg


xk150_2.jpg


xk150_3.jpg
 
Very pretty , but i was expecting something else when i read the title.
 
Or even worse , you wake up with your arm round it , and you have to chew your own arm off at the shoulder rather than wake it up ...
 
That 150 is nice. DVLA check still shows 3.8 litres, interestingly it's not listed on the Jaguar XK database:

XK Data - Keeping track of every Jaguar XK - Jaguar XK120, XK140, XK150 information, articles, photos and register

I found my grandfather's XK 150 S DHC on there:

XK Data - T827426 - Jaguar XK120, XK140, XK150 information, articles, photos and register

Seems the car was built specially for him - never knew that! However it spent some time at the museum at Gaydon which isn't mentioned, so as with all information on the internet ...
 
That 150 is nice. DVLA check still shows 3.8 litres, interestingly it's not listed on the Jaguar XK database:

XK Data - Keeping track of every Jaguar XK - Jaguar XK120, XK140, XK150 information, articles, photos and register

I found my grandfather's XK 150 S DHC on there:

XK Data - T827426 - Jaguar XK120, XK140, XK150 information, articles, photos and register

Seems the car was built specially for him - never knew that! However it spent some time at the museum at Gaydon which isn't mentioned, so as with all information on the internet ...

Ah, so your grandfather must have been the film editor Esmond Seal (there could hardly be two contemporary people with such a name).

MFF 922 is on the XK database - that's how I discovered it had been sold in 2003 (and 1999).

XK Data - S836149 - Jaguar XK120, XK140, XK150 information, articles, photos and register
 
Ah, so your grandfather must have been the film editor Esmond Seal (there could hardly be two contemporary people with such a name).
Yes, step-grandfather really but I barely remember my real grandfather. He was an editor for the BBC in later years and the 150 was his pride and joy - you weren't allowed to touch any of the chrome ... had to use a cloth to open the doors! Then you had to clap your feet together (to dislodge any dirt) before swinging your legs into the car :D Yet he drove it like a maniac, and had a few scrapes in it :dk:

He was a keen biker too and commuted to London every day on a Honda 400/4.
 
Perhaps the "MFF" series is one of those used for cars that have lost their original period registration but qualify for a replacement "period" plate.

Good point. They tend to be Scottish marks with an "S" in the middle (such as CSU), but they can actually be from any region where original registrations were low in volume. FF would have been a Merionethshire registration, so I think you could be spot on.
 
He was a keen biker too and commuted to London every day on a Honda 400/4.

The bike of choice for London dispatch riders as I recall. Nice balance of power and manouverability.
 
And I thought it might have been about icebergs !
 
Good point. They tend to be Scottish marks with an "S" in the middle (such as CSU), but they can actually be from any region where original registrations were low in volume. FF would have been a Merionethshire registration, so I think you could be spot on.

Also, the 120 is LHD so it was clearly imported back to here at some point - that would be when it was assigned a period plate.
 
Also, the 120 is LHD so it was clearly imported back to here at some point - that would be when it was assigned a period plate.

Actually, so was the XK150 when it was last sold. Must have been converted since.
 

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