HOW TO KEEP CALM
GILES sketches himself into a Rally in an XK-120
Original Giles sketch featuring his XK-120, which he entered in the National Motor Rally.
Image courtesy of the car’s owner.
By 1951, famous cartoonist Carl Giles was arguably the Daily Express Newspaper’s greatest asset, and regular readers would often make a bee line for the Giles cartoon. He received a salary two or three times that of the Editor, and in September 1951, the newspaper’s owner, Lord Beaverbrook, gifted him a brand new right-hand-drive Jaguar XK-120, registered MBJ 298.
The Giles XK-120 today at CKL, showing the domestic egg timer installed in 1951 or 1952.
Image: CKL
The car was delivered to Giles fitted with a racing screen, sump guard, front brake air scoops and twin fog lights, in October 1951. Giles then made a few subtle modifications to the car in period, including 2-inch sand cast H8 SU carburettors, ‘C’ type cams and head modifications, an alloy dash insert and the installation of his very own rally stage timing device - a domestic egg timer. The car was extensively raced and rallied by Giles, including at Silverstone.
Carl Giles at Silverstone with MBJ 298.
Image courtesy of the car's owner.
DAILY EXPRESS NATIONAL MOTOR RALLY
Organised by the M.C.C. - November 1952
Rally preparation of the Giles XK-120 in 1952.
Image courtesy of the car's owner.
The car was ‘laid up’ by Giles in 1971 at his farm in Suffolk with 31,000 miles on the clock but remained in his ownership until his death in 1995. In 2001, Paul Skilleter wrote of the car’s condition in Jaguar World:
“No rust to speak of, with all original outer panels, sills, inner wings, spare wheel tray, etc - most unusual for a British based XK. The engine bay cleaned up beautifully…largely successful in cleaning off the black upholstery paint which had long disguised the original two-tone red and biscuit leather upholstery…”
The Giles XK-120 today, at CKL, showing the original interior.
Image: CKL
Today, the Giles XK-120 retains its original matching-number engine, gearbox and chassis together with its MBJ 298 registration number. It's original condition and history make it an ideal Concours Preservation Classcompetitor. Thank you to the car's current owner for sharing with us the story of this highly original and historic car.
CARL GILES
Britain’s Greatest Social Cartoonist
From 1943 to his retirement in 1991, Carl Giles was Britain’s greatest social cartoonist. At the height of his popularity, Giles was taken to lunch in London by the Chairman of Express Newspapers, Sir Max Aitken. As they walked through Berkeley Square, Sir Max asked Giles how he was getting home. ‘By the train,’ said the cartoonist. He then walked the cartoonist into Jack Barclay’s, then the pre-eminent London dealer in Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Knowing Giles’s affection for motorcars, he asked him which car was his own favourite. Giles immediately pointed out a Bentley Continental. Sir Max then said “Give me your return ticket to Ipswich?.” He did. “Right. I’ll keep this and you go home in that” and he did.
"His oblong space in the Express newspapers became a window into which the British public peered day after day to see themselves, reacting to history through more humorous, more tender and infinitely more sensitive eyes.”
For nearly fifty years, Carl Giles personified Christmas in Britain. His annual proved the perfect stocking-filler. It was of no surprise that it reached the Christmas best seller booklists every year. However, despite his long held interest in motoring and the ten or so cartoons he produced featuring his XK-120, he never published a motoring collection of cartoons.