When you have been around the kit car world for some time, choosing that project car of your dreams becomes a deep-seated, thought-provoking process of personal taste and entertainment. In fact, one of the most fun aspects about building and owning a kit car is the selection process.
Though the choice of any number of awesome Cobra replicas, Daytona clones, or GT40 remakes would make anyone happy, the thought of a racier car, such as the Ultima, Lola, or Noble M-12, come to mind. But when it came down to the final answer, we had to go with the classy cat that was a legend on the track and street since its inception more than 50 years ago, and that dream car is the 1951 Jaguar C-type racer.
In the jungle, the Jaguar, or Panthera onca, has no rivals, and this automotive version has no peers either, historically speaking (though Cheetah owners might argue that point).
C-Type HistoryJaguar Works built only 54 C-types during the early 1950s. It's rare that we have the opportunity to see, let alone drive, one of the original works of art, but thanks to Shell Valley Companies, owning and driving this replicated work can be a reality that fits the wallets of non-millionaires, as original C-types sell for close to a million dollars!
The "C" in C-type stood for "competition," and the Jag was created to win at LeMans, which it did in '51 and '53, beating the Ferraris, Maseratis, Astons, and Talbots on the track. It raced at such historic venues as the Targa Florio and the Mille Miglia, and was driven by such legends of motorsport as Juan-Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, and Phil Hill. Some of its biggest track wins were accomplished by Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead at LeMans in '51, Hill at Elkhart Lake in 1952, and Duncan Hamilton in '53 at LeMans, using some of the first disc brakes systems ever employed on the circuit.
Jaguar introduced its XK120-C in '51 as the competition version of its formidable XK120 road car. The new sports racer broke new ground with its light, tubular spaceframe construction, and its light, streamlined, sinuous body designed by Malcolm Sayer-his first car for Jaguar. In competition, the Jaguar Works team as well as the private teams embraced the C-type. With a 3442cc straight-six DOHC engine churning out 200 bhp, it had a top speed of 151 mph and went from 0-60 in 6.6 seconds. The original had a wheelbase of 96 inches, a length of just over 13 feet, and it was built using production components where practical.
Fifty Years Later
Fast forward a half-century and most C-types are museum cars that never see the open road-unless it is a replicar, such as the one created by Rich Anderson's Shell Valley team.
Anderson hit on the vanguard concept of utilizing his tested and reliable Cobra chassis as a basic platform on which to create other cars. Shell Valley Companies has successfully utilized the approach to add a Cheetah and '30 Model A to its line, joining its popular 427 Cobra and Daytona Series 1 in the kit car marketplace.
So, starting with the SVC Cobra rectangular tube chassis, Anderson and his engineers spent 18 months getting the prototype '51 Jaguar modified, fine-tuned and complete. SVC's '51 Jaguar Replica is reminiscent of a time when privateers campaigned sensual sports cars by day and sipped champagne at the casino by night. The car you see here and the first one from the SVC molds is the prototype from which all future SVC Jags will be cloned.
Design Characteristics
Shell Valley made a few concessions to its Jaguar design (conforming to certain market and legal requirements) but their design loses nothing in this modified translation and, in some aspects, gains much.