#4

1954 Jaguar XK-120 Roadster

Childhood memories are very powerful. In my neighborhood "lived" a 1954 XK-120 Roadster. At four or five years old, I wasn't fully aware of what it was--all I knew is that it was beautiful. We never knew the owner, but ocassionally we would see him quickly get into his steed. With a pipe firmly clenched in his teeth, and with a chatter of the starter, the sharp sound of that rorty exhaust would bounce off the surrounding houses and away he he would go.

One thing bothered me, even at 4 years old, "why did he almost always have that top up?" Well, it could have been due to the habitually cool, almost cold foggy mist that seemed to always be around the San Francisco Bay. But to me, gee, this was a convertible-- and aren't convertibles meant to be driven with the top down? On a rare occassion (a sunny warn day in S.F. is about as common as the Giants winning the pennant), he'd struggle with the top stowing it away, and then, pipe still firmly clenched in teeth, motor smartly away.

Whenever I could, I would steal glances at it. Sneaking up on it like some little animal checking to see if it was safe to come out of its den. At times, the pipe-man seemed to be gone, and then I'd just sit on the curb next to that car and look at it. And look. And stare. And wonder. I'd walk around and around it and peer in the windows, looking at the black expanse of leather and those big, round dials. I studied its every curve, crease, and form so I could remember it when I went to bed at night. There was something really special about that car.

And one day I came home and I didn't see the car again. Or the pipe-man. For a while, I'd walk across the street and just sit on the curb--not doing anything in particular, except looking at the oil spot pattern on the street left by the white convertible.

I still want one! Not the white that I remember, but something else. It was the shape that so mesmorized me. I can still see every detail. No car better personifies the spirit of the old to new Jaguar than the XK-120. It is a true classic, don't you agree?

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