If you have arrived here from the beginning, you know about me and the Westfield.   I loved the Westfield and thought it a fantastic car. Easy to build and maintain and above all fun to drive. We were pleased to exhibit the car at the Exeter Kit Car Show, at the invitation of Westfield, on two occasions. We enjoyed talking to prospective builders and sharing our experience.   There is something about kit car building that gets in to the blood.  Witness the number of people who have built more than one.  So it was, about 2 years on from building the Westfield I began to think about a new project.  But what? rebuild someone else's project?  Find a classic car and restore it?

Westfield SEiW 2.0L Zetec

In October 2001 I visited the Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon. Amongst the exhibits was a Jaguar SS100, a car I had fallen in love with, in 1957/8 when I used to see one being driven around RAF Cottesmore. Only 340 were ever made in the 1936/8 era and it marked the beginning of Jaguar cars.  If you can find one, then start thinking 5 figures to buy it.   At the 2002 "Auto Jumble" at Beaulieu, a SS100 “wreck”, a sad and sorry looking site, requiring “big bucks” to restore it, fetched £25K at auction.  Roger Williams of Suffolk Sports Cars sells replica SS100 kits based on the Jaguar XJ6 Series 1,2, or 3.  I was tempted, but realised this project at an estimated £30- 45K was too expensive to justify.

Jaguar SS100

By chance, I went to the Detling (Kent) kit car show in April 2002. and was struck by the quality and style of the Classic 120 that was on the Nostalgia Cars Ltd stand, a replica of the Jaguar XK120.   I was impressed by how much of the donor XJ6 could be used. No “Q” plates here, a fairly easy matter to obtain an age related registration or if you wish, a personalised number plate

Nostalgia Classic XK120

The Jaguar XK120 was a boyhood dream.  Produced just after the war and in to the middle 50’s there had been nothing like it before in terms of style.    A classic Jaguar sports car named after the XK engine it was using and the 120 mph top speed it was capable of.   A tentative enquiry and some hard thinking determined that this was an affordable project, not requiring the immediate disposal of the Westfield, though space may become the issue that forces the sale.  With that, TopCat Engineering was borne.

Jaguar XK140