OK, it’s Gullwing Motors time! Today, our friend Peter Kumar is promoting a California black plate 1955 Jaguar XK140, a roadster that is clearly a project and proclaimed to be “An extremely honest car” – this should be interesting! Located in Astoria, New York, this Jaguar is available here on Gullwing Motor Cars for $56,500.
A very sharp, distinctive, and British-looking tourer, the XK140 was offered for three years, ’55, ’56, and ’57 – it was the successor to the more commonly found, though similar, XK120. Body styles included a roadster, a convertible, and a coupe and production generated about 8,900 copies over its three-year model run.
Normally a car with a beautiful bearing, this XK140 appears to have arisen from the deep – seriously, it looks as if it was in the hold of the RMS Titanic along with the missing 1911 Renault. The interior, in particular, is a giveaway, it is completely dilapidated. It’s truly hard to wrap your head around everything that is wrong; floors, seats, dash, instrument panel, cowl, steering wheel, windshield, it is all very rough – how unfortunate.
Power for the XK140 comes about via a 3.4 liter DOHC, in-line six-cylinder engine that generates either 190 or 210 HP, depending upon the cylinder head employed. There is one included image of the engine, and from what can be seen, it appears to be intact but it’s a safe bet that it has not run in many moons. This car is advertised as being a matching number specimen but it would be nice to know if the engine will at least turnover. Depending upon its internal condition, the matching numbers claim may no longer matter. The transmission is more than likely a four-speed manual and there was an overdrive option available too. Interestingly, an automatic gearbox was available in 1956.
As for the exterior, it embodies the vibe of the interior with its dents, rust, and contusions but it’s not as seriously degraded. The finish is heavily faded – the least of its concerns but the rust looks to be more surface than invasive, perhaps courtesy of its California upbringing. It’s mostly intact and the body panels appear to be sound but it would be good to know how the underside and structure check out. The wire wheels, other than normal corrosion, are passable so perhaps they can be refinished without breaking the bank. Nice to see is the recognizable and prominent grille without any missing teeth.
I can find a pair of nicely finished ’55 XK140’s for $79,500 and $76,995 so I’m not sure how this car’s asking price, considering its condition, will workout. The $56,500 price seems out of line but I have said that before regarding Gullwing Motor Cars inventory and they obviously know how to make things come together. So what’s your estimate, is this a project that will make financial sense or would it be better to keep looking for a better example?
If Aqualung drove a Jag,,,:)
He must have parked this one on the bottom of that river…
I wonder how many people have left the antique buy and restore realm because of Gullwing Motors. Even if you did your own work this car at this price would leave you upside down and crashed.
But you’d make GM a lot of money.
There was a fellow around here that had a big Healey in similar condition. The interior was complete and in fairly good condition. Car was alway clean, just faded paint a mismatched door and a couple of dents. Motor sounded great and it moved. Always liked seeing him drive by thinking he enjoyed his car with no intention of impressing anyone.
Think this car would also look fantastic going down the road just as it is. Value to me on this car is $10k. Honest cars should sell for honest prices
I think Peter puts a price on a car as a way to get negotiations started. If not, he’s overpriced on this one. I have to say I have friends who have done business on the East Coast with Gullwing and were satisfied with their transactions. Here on the Left Coast we have Beverly Hills Car Club, Alex Manos, who is in the same business.
This specific car requires deep pockets and a lot of patience to do. You have to
want to keep it for a long time in order to get your investment out of it. If possible.
Kumar’s business model is a mystery to most of us, yet he stays in business and seems to prosper at it.
“An honest car”. All I can say, looking at it is…LIE TO ME!
And I passed on one just like this, in 1967, for $350, right hand drive, looked really good, drove well, smoked a lot, and rattled and creaked. If I had kept it, garaged, it would have cost two cross country moves, and paid garage space for 50 plus years. So, I might have broken even. But on the other hand I gave away my ’83 Pontiac Phoenix and if I had kept it, it would still be worth $0.
If your going to be extremely honest this car is a POS !
And once again, it baffles me how anyone can let a car like this get in this condition. Even if their value went way down for a number of years, just the beauty and fun of this vehicle would seem to me to be reason enough to keep it maintained in presentable condition.
Both GW and BHM redefine the word HONEST. As PT Barnum said: A sucker is born every minute…. paraphrasing of course. And dont forget B-J , more stories that people end up buying there than any place I know of.
I suspect this car may actually start and drive. When GWM has non-runners for sale, the photos show typically the car inside. When they have running cars they take them to a nice location like next to the river as seen here. I note that the photos show the car was turned around so that both front and rear views included the river in the background.
I also don’t see any scraping marks on the pavement. 99% of the time if a vehicle is loaded/unloaded to a trailer or rollback tow truck, the equipment leaves marks in the pavement. No marks either indicates to me the car runs under it’s own power, or it was carefully moved by tow truck operators who took extra care not to show any pavement marks [yeah, right!]
And the thought that 6 or more people turned around a non-running car with manual steering, on a public street, is also not realistic just from the labor cost to bring all the employees down to the waterfront to load/unload, and turn the car around.
So it probably does run, but not well, and the brakes are probably very marginal, or they are using the e-brake. But as there are no details in the listing, we won’t know unless one of us calls and asks!
Glad to see that the grille isn’t “missing any teeth”: XK-140 grilles are die cast, not brass with soldered-in vanes like the XK-120. If a 140 is “missing teeth”, it’s been smacked hard.
I have a Jowett Jupiter in just about the same condition. Perhaps I should get Gullwing to broker it for me… ;)