When he acquired it, it was completely rotten, which took a lot of restoration work over the years to bring it back to as new as it is today. The Jaguar Mark VII is a four-door luxury car produced by Jaguar Cars of Coventry from 1951 to 1956. Launched at the 1950 British International Motor Show as a successor to the Jaguar Mark V, it was called the Mark VII, because there was already a Bentley Mark VI on the market. An XK-powered version of the Jaguar Mark V was designated the Mark VI, but only two are believed to have been built. In its original 1950 form, the Mark VII could exceed 100 mph, and in 1952 it became the first Jaguar to be available with an optional automatic transmission. Mark VIIs were successful in racing and rallies. The Mark VII chassis came from the Jaguar Mark V and the wheelbase remained the same at 3,048.0 mm. The new model's bodywork arose to be more aerodynamic, with integrated headlights and fenders, a two-piece windshield, and a longer rear overhang. As with the Mark V, the rear wheels were partially covered by removable gaiters. While the Mark V had a pre-war engine originally developed by the Standard Motor Company, the Mark VII was powered by the newly developed XK engine. First seen, in production form, in the 1948 XK120, the straight six-cylinder 3,442 cc DOHC provided 160 hp (119.3 kW), the same as in the km/h. When it was being developed, Jaguar thought it would find most of its customers overseas, particularly as UK car tax at that time penalized buyers of cars with larger engines. However, it entered production just as Britain's post-war economic austerity began to ease, and in 1951 the automobile's enthusiastic reception in the British and American markets led Jaguar to move production to larger facilities, at the Browns Lane factory, which had been built for wartime as a parallel factory and was now available for immediate use. Published performance figures for the Mark VII were based on the standard 8:1 compression ratio, but as this was not suitable for the UK market's low octane Pool petrol, a 7:1 engine was optional. British motoring magazines tested the car's performance with the higher compression ratio, using the highway from Ostend to Brussels, Belgium, where 80 octane fuel was available. A Mark VII tested by The Motor in 1952 had a top speed of 163 km/h, accelerated from 0–97 km/h in 13.7 seconds and returned 16.1 L/100 km. The test car cost £1,693 including tax. In 1952, the Mark VII became the first Jaguar to be available with an automatic transmission. When the model was upgraded to M specification in 1954, 20,908 units had been produced.
Datasheet Year: 1953 Brand: Jaguar Model: MK VII Country: England License plate: MD-27-13 Engine: cc Gearbox:...