Background
‘The original and best’ is frequently used to describe classic cars – and it’s often right. The Series 1 E Type Jag, the original Datsun 240Z, the early Vauxhall Zafira… okay – it doesn’t always hold true but there are several examples of designers’ original concepts becoming slowly watered down as a car is facelifted and fiddled with. But the Mk2 Jag is the exception that proves this rule, as it’s unquestionably a better car than the one it replaced.
The Jaguar 2.4, later known as the Mk1, was a mid-sized saloon that brought the Jaguar marque to a new audience, and it was by no means a bad car. The hefty Mk VII, VIII and IX made better limousines than sports saloons, and though the much smaller, nimbler 2.4 offered four-door Jags to a wider fanbase, they weren’t exactly road burners with just 112bhp. The 3.4-litre version, launched in 1957, changed all that.
But the compact Jag really hit its stride with the raft of changes brought in by the Mk2 in 1959: a bigger glass area, a better interior, a wider rear track for improved roadholding, and standard four-wheel disc brakes. Oh, and the 3.8-litre version of Jaguar’s masterpiece, the XK engine.
The car of choice for the discerning armed robber in the 1960s, the Jaguar Mk2 is the perfect high-speed luxury express with its decadent interior and sporting chassis. That it’s one of the best-looking saloon cars ever built just adds to its already considerable appeal.
Launched as a full-spectrum, three-model range from the very beginning, the 2.4-litre, 120bhp engine formed the bedrock of the Mk2 line-up, with the performance-oriented customer able to choose between 3.4-litre and 3.8-litre engines that offer 210bhp and 220bhp respectively, a more-than-adequate output that offered the well-heeled driver more performance than anything else in its class.
And on top of that gem of an engine, the Mk2 had independent front suspension and trailing arms at the rear, which offered sparkling handling, while all-wheel disc brakes meant that it stopped as quickly as it accelerated.
In fact, the chassis and engine were so far ahead of their time that it was raced very successfully in period by luminaries such as Denny Hulme, Roy Salvadori, and Duncan Hamilton.
Suddenly Jaguar had the fastest production saloon car in the world. Everyone wanted one: respectable bank managers, less respectable nightclub barons, sporting family gents with stringback gloves, and, of course, bank robbers. The Mk2 defined the term Sports Saloon for the 1960s – in fact the Mk2 Jag is the original Sports Saloon. And in this case, the original could well still be the best.
