Top Gear (1977 TV series)/Series 23/Episode 3

Episode 3
A Jaguar XK120.
Prod. code	NBMN308N
No.	201
Runtime	29:19
Prev ep.	Series 23, Episode 2
Next ep.	Series 23, Episode 4
Airdate	10th April, 1990

Series 23, Episode 3 of Top Gear aired on the 10th April, 1990. It was the third episode of Series 23; the 201st episode of Top Gear overall, including compilations. It was the 192nd episode since Top Gear entered national broadcasting in 1978, and was the 3rd programme to air in 1990 out of a total 18. Series 23, Episode 3 was originally broadcast in 576i at a 4:3 Standard aspect ratio on British television channel BBC Two. The episode was presented by William Woollard and Tiff Needell, with no other hosts presenting a piece to camera that week.

Synopsis

As narrated by William Woollard:

• A new family-sized hatchback from Yugoslavia.
• Last week solar power; this week other alternatives to petrol.
• And motor racing, with the mighty Austin 7.

This week, William Woollard is stood outside Jaguar's Browns Lane plant in Coventry, along with an E-Type. Five months earlier, the sports and luxury car maker had been sold to Ford for £1.6 billion from its former owners British Leyland. To commemorate this landmark purchase, the episode will focus on the history that Ford has chosen to buy into, going over some of Jaguar's greatest hits.

Early Days

Jaguar was founded by William Lyons as the Swallow Sidecar company, or SS for short. Their first car entered production in 1931 on the running gear from a saloon originally produced by Standard, including the engine, which at just 53 brake horsepower, did not have enough power to Lyons' liking. To remedy this, Lyons appointed Bill Heynes in order to strip down and re-engineer the Standard engines to produce more power. While developing subsequent models such as the SS100, Heynes had the inspired idea of naming his cars after the Jaguar species of panther, as naming cars after animals was allegedly a popular practice at the time. The car was also capable of 100 MPH due to its light weight and high power-to-weight ratio, and thus the image of Jaguar was born, the company changing its name after the Second World War to avoid obvious Nazi connotations.

The XK120, Jaguar in Motorsport

What was Jaguar's big break however came in 1948 with the XK120, a car originally intended as a concept for the 1948 motor show held at Earl's Court. However, demand was so great from both sides of the Atlantic that it had to be put into full-scale production. Lyons' swooping, striking exterior design coupled with Heynes' engineering prowess, such as the innovation of a double-overhead camshaft utilised in considerably more expensive, exotic sports cars, helped propel the XK120 to a great deal of success, including holding the record as the world's fastest production car. Quickly, the company was beginning to earn a reputation, and this would prompt the company to enter the world of motorsport. Three of the company's C-Types were entered in the 1951 running of Le Mans, which saw the partnership of Peters Walker and Whitehead win out after their two team-mates retired from the gruelling event. It became the first British car to win at Le Mans since the 1930s, and helped to immortalise the brand and increase sales of their road cars. The C-Type would be replaced by the D-Type, which went on to win three consecutive runnings of Le Mans from 1955 through to 1957, dominating the latter by making up 5 of the top 6 finishers.

Subsequent road cars

Buoyed by this success, Jaguar turned its attention towards luxury cars, building the Mark VII, of which a particular example shown to camera by Woollard was built for the Queen Mother, and featured novel concepts such as a single piece windscreen which appeared on later models as standard. This car used the same engine as the XK120, and served as the basis for Jaguar's subsequent smaller luxury car, the 2.4, which launched in 1956 in a more widespread production run. The 2.4 sold well but had a glaring design fault in the car's track width, which is believed to have caused the car to understeer while in tight bends. The car was revised in 1959 as the Mark II, which rectified this issue, along with a stiffer chassis, redesigned exterior and disc brakes, which were uncommon for a saloon car at the time of the car's launch.