The Jaguar XK150 was first launched in 1957 and was the third mannequin within the iconic XK lineage, succeeding the XK120 and XK140. It featured all-new styling that also appeared like an XK whereas that includes a much more modern late-Nineteen Fifties design. Produced via to 1961, the automotive was an actual world-beater, being each inexpensive and aggressive on street and monitor. It initially got here as a fixed-head coupé, a drophead coupé and a roadster, however in a couple of uncommon instances it obtained bespoke coachwork from well-known design homes. Solely eight XK150 chassis had been believed to have acquired this therapy, which is only one issue that makes this Bertone so particular.

This Jaguar, S 834365, photographed at Concours of Magnificence 2020, is only one of three XK150s that had been despatched as naked chassis to Bertone in Turin, to be bodied as prototype fixed-head coupés. Every had barely completely different styling by Franco Scaglione, who was accountable for arguably a number of the most putting automobiles of the twentieth century, from the Alfa Romeo B.A.T. automobiles to the Lamborghini 350GTV prototype and the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale.

The only real right-hand-drive instance was ordered by – and its remaining design overseen by – the legendary John Coombs, who later associated that when he acquired it in England, the manufacturing facility stored it for a couple of weeks to evaluate it. The Bertones had been reportedly constructed as prototypes for a attainable XK150 substitute – a few years earlier than the E-type would fill that area. Curiously, the automobiles all had a fragile ‘XKE’ badge on their rear flanks.

This XK150 Bertone is automotive no.2, and its chassis was made on August 15, 1957 and dispatched to Italy the next month. It’s the one instance identified to nonetheless exist, with the opposite two automobiles having apparently been unseen for many years. It was bought new by Tommaso Ingenoli, a pal and buyer of Enzo Ferrari, in 1958. A proud, provenance-filled historical past since then features a interval residing in California’s Blackhawk Assortment. Throughout that point it was restored and proven at Pebble Seashore in 1992.

The present proprietor has since commissioned a nut-and-bolt renovation. Now completed in gorgeous Jet Black over Saddle Tan, the automotive is a jewel to behold, superbly restored to the glowing situation such a uncommon beast deserves. Regardless of its reliable English underpinnings, the automotive screams Italian sporting design and displays this with its delicate tailfins and chic traces, giving off a really feel extra of the mid-Sixties than the late Nineteen Fifties. Paired with the enduring 3.8 S engine, this automotive additionally has the efficiency besides, and would simply rival any Aston Martin, Ferrari or Maserati from the interval with a novel design all of its personal.

ENGINE

3.8-litre, straight-six, DOHC, 220bhp, twin carburettors

CONFIGURATION

Entrance engine, four-speed gearbox, rear-wheel drive, separate ladder chassis, torsion-bar and wishbone entrance suspension, leaf-spring reside axle rear, disc brakes all spherical