2023-09-24 13:15:24 | pauls writes:

Car offered at:

www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1955-jaguar-xk140mc-bluemont-va-2727453

Seller's description:

ASKING PRICE $79,000

Mileage 15,569

VIN # S-810424

Exterior Green

Transmission Manual

Interior Green

Engine Twin cam Straight Six Cylinder

Condition Project

For Sale is S-810424 an original number matching 1955 XK140MC OTS with 15,569 actual miles and a unique history making it worthy of being counted among one of the rarest of all Jaguars. 

It is being offered two ways. 1) As a straight sale in which you would purchase it and then have it restored at a shop of your choice. 2) It is being offered at a discounted rate in the sense that a $17K credit will be given towards work preformed at my Restoration Shop, Smitties Classy Chassies in Bluemont Va where we have been restoring timeless classics since 1987. With this option a Restoration Agreement will need to be completed as part of the sale. Note with both options a Bill of Sale will be provided to the purchaser. Please read on to see why S 810424 is so unique.

Before I explain why I feel obligated to explain how this remarkable bit of Jaguar history was discovered some 25 years ago in the summer of 1998 near the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountain of VA.

In a conversation with my father-in law he told me about what he thought was a Morgan sticking out of an old barn near where the school was that he was helping to build . I went there the very next day in the late afternoon and I as I gazed across the fields on that summer day I saw a grill glinting in the sun. I still remembered my heart skipping a beat with excitement as I realized, “that’s not a Morgan that’s a Jaguar” I said to my self. I immediately set out to find out how could I get to it as there were no visible roads. I went down one back road after another until finally I had found the right barn. I knocked on the door of the white farm house and an older gentlemen came to the door. I explained why I was there and after a few minutes he agreed to show me the car. It was up on jack stands facing a large open doorway.

I noticed that the license plates were from 1967. Curious I asked him why? He paused for a long time and then said, “I bought the car just before I was drafted into the Vietnam War. When I got back I just never drove it again.” By the expression on his face and his tone I could tell the subject was not open for further discussion. Then he turned to me and said, “what is it worth?” At the time I was a relatively young man of 35 years old but even at that age I had owned my own Restoration shop for 11 years and had been working in the field professionally since I was 19. Based on my experience I told him, “the current market value of a typically restored 1955 XK140 MC OTS was that time $80,000.” He then smiled and said, “many people have come to my door trying to buy his Jaguar but I was the first to tell him the truth.” He then added he had taken the car to a well-known restoration shop in the area called, White Post Restorations and they had told him the same thing but he did not have the fund to restore it.” Because of my honesty along with my promise to restore the car one day he sold it to me at a very reasonable price.

When I got the car home I began to research it because the car made no sense. It Chassis number S-810424 begins with the prefix S which according to all the Jaguar books I owned including, Original Jaguar by Philip Porter and Jaguar XK 140/150 in Detail by Anders Lilley Clausager to mention just a few this 1955 XK140MC OTS came have had a red cylinder head along with a Type-C badge on the rocker covers. But it did not and yet as the photos show the engine number G 2615-8(G 2615-8S on the production certificate), along with the identical number G 2615-8 on the front of the cylinder head which matches the Id plate. How could this be I wondered. The G suffix denotes a standard engine. So I was very confused and I wondered how a number matching 1955 XK140MC OTS come equipped from the factory with a standard engine? How could Chassis number S-8140424 be real? After years of digging I discovered this little know bit of Jaguar history that makes S-810424 so rare and so unique. 

It was manufactured December 7, 1954 at the very end of the first year of production for the XK140 model. It was dispatched by Rm Oversees, Frankfurt, Germany to its first owner Major Howard W Densford on March 9,1955. 

Here is the bit of Jaguar history I discovered that makes S-810424 so unique. The Jaguar factory had made a mistake. It had produced 5 possibly 6 XK140MC bodies but lacked the traditional red Type-C cylinder headed engines for the SE (special equipment) or MC as they are known in the US market, so the decision was made to install standard engines into these final few SE (aka MC) cars and stamp there Id plate accordingly. Why do I say 5 or 6 cars? Because just a few years after S 810424 rolled out of the factory floor the Jaguar factory suffered a devastating fire. Some records were lost and others were damaged so we can not dogmatically say if there were 5 cars or if there were 6. But what we can say definitely is that according to all known sources including the, Jaguar Heritage Trust, the official keeper of the records from this period who also verified the authenticity of S 810424 it is the only known example of this rare bit of Jaguar history know to have survived. 

Originally I planned to restore S-810424 and keep it for myself. But life is change. So at this time S 810424 is being offered to the public in two formates, First, with a price of $79,000 in as is condition and you can have it restored at a shop of your choice. Secondly, it is being offered for $62,000 with the stipulation that S-810424 be restored at Smitties Classy Chassies Inc, which is my shop in Bluemont, VA. A Restoration Agreement will apply and the discount will become null and void if for any reason S-810424 is not restored at Smitties Classy Chassies Inc in Bluemont, VA if this option is chosen.

2025-04-07 22:01:44 | pauls writes:

Car relisted same seller, price change:

www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1955-jaguar-xk140mc-bluemont-va-2849754

ASKING PRICE $42,700