Ray Archibald's XK120 and MK2 Jaguars

[JC1]

I live in the UK and have recently acquired Ray Archibald's Jaguar XK120, the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix car, and his Jaguar MK2 in which he won the 1962 and 1963 Saloon Car Championship. My intention is to preserve the MK2 exactly as it is (a wonderful time-warp) using it as a road car, but the XK120 will be fully restored and used for historic racing. I am trying to piece together and document the history of both cars, and would be grateful for any old photographs, videos or memories people have of Ray Archibald racing these two cars. There are pictures, particularly of the MK2, in various threads on this website, but I'm guessing there are a lot more out there. All help greatly appreciated.

[BMCBOY]

Hi, I don't know if these are of any interest. Taken at Wigram in 1980 at Country Gents race meeting.


39000

39001

39002

[khyndart in CA]

JC1,
You will find this article is very good by Eoin Young if you can locate it.
"Following Ray Archibald's death in August 2010, Eoin Young writing in the New Zealand magazine Classic Driver published a full history of both the XK120 and its driver under the title 'Gentleman Jaguar Racer' (October/November 2010 edition."

All the best,
Ken Hyndman

[JC1]

These are great - many thanks. John

[JC1]

Thanks Ken - I have got it. I haven't managed to find any pictures of Ray in the 1954 NZGP yet; any idea where I might find some? John

[crookedonenz]

I live in the UK and have recently acquired Ray Archibald's Jaguar XK120, the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix car, and his Jaguar MK2 in which he won the 1962 and 1963 Saloon Car Championship. My intention is to preserve the MK2 exactly as it is (a wonderful time-warp) using it as a road car, but the XK120 will be fully restored and used for historic racing. I am trying to piece together and document the history of both cars, and would be grateful for any old photographs, videos or memories people have of Ray Archibald racing these two cars. There are pictures, particularly of the MK2, in various threads on this website, but I'm guessing there are a lot more out there. All help greatly appreciated.

Hello Weekend Warrior, we have some video of Ray racing the Mk 2 in .his later years. Dad had a early video camera he raced a few cars. Then i went on from this to work as a video cameraman for 30 years. I also run a facebook page called Historic sports car racing New Zealand. This is my email stuart.short@hotmail.co.nz. Over the next few weeks i see what i can get together for you

[Autopia]

Hi JC1. I can help with info, history, photos etc of the XK120 as I've owned it twice. PM me please, rwhitehouse@mac.com

[Rascal]

The Archibald Mk2 On the Grid at the Ardmore -Ohakea Reunion at Pukekoe 1982-83. A seen, to the jags Left ,The very rapid Singer Gazelle of Dave Craw is still in a Race trim, but often daily Driven, private collection . 39203

[Steve Holmes]

Awesome thread. I'm really enjoying this.

[Pendragon]

I am the chap who supplied the photocopy of the spec sheet for the Archibald MK2, just to let you know I found the original sheets from whence the copy came as supplied by Jaguar. Steve.

[Grant Sprague]

A photo or two on the sprague family photos , good ones of Ray,s Jag

[ERC]

Yes, as posted on my pics thread.
43682

[ged]

one car most people are not talking about Rays mk1 jaguar was 3.4 on wires, disc brakes,special seats steering wheel etc . i owned the car it purchased from A.Dick, I sold the car onto Ray Larsen who i think still owns it, "A special Car"

[Grant Sprague]

43698 Sorry not a good photo Rays 3.8 & Ernie's 3.8 Ruapuna production race

[Grant Sprague]

43699Another of Rays Jag Ruapuna

[chrisl]

I live in the UK and have recently acquired Ray Archibald's Jaguar XK120, the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix car, and his Jaguar MK2 in which he won the 1962 and 1963 Saloon Car Championship. My intention is to preserve the MK2 exactly as it is (a wonderful time-warp) using it as a road car, but the XK120 will be fully restored and used for historic racing. I am trying to piece together and document the history of both cars, and would be grateful for any old photographs, videos or memories people have of Ray Archibald racing these two cars. There are pictures, particularly of the MK2, in various threads on this website, but I'm guessing there are a lot more out there. All help greatly appreciated.

Hello JC1,

I once owned your XK120 660864 in Auckland, NZ, in the mid-'70s, and would gladly pass on my memories of my time with it.
I also live in the UK, and currently once again own an XK120 OTS.
It would be great to see the old girl again sometime!

Best,
Chris, Twickenham

[ERC]

Is the XK120 the one that the late Bryan Wyness bought?

[chrisl]

Is the XK120 the one that the late Bryan Wyness bought?

Yes - #660864, 1951 car. I hadn't realized that Bryan had died - sad to hear that. We once spoke on the phone when I was over in NZ but didn't manage to arrange a meeting due to his having the flu or something at the time.

[duncan fox]

Hi Chris ,

Did you buy it from Ron Eaton? I was very keen on the car when I first saw it out the back of his yard, but my obsession with Cadillacs and hot rods got the better of me. It was $1200.00 if I recall and that would have made it the 5th car I had on tick . British were cars my parents drove!

[duncan fox]

Hi Rob,
long time no speak. Who did you buy it from first?

[chrisl]

Hi Chris ,

Did you buy it from Ron Eaton? I was very keen on the car when I first saw it out the back of his yard, but my obsession with Cadillacs and hot rods got the better of me. It was $1200.00 if I recall and that would have made it the 5th car I had on tick . British were cars my parents drove!

I bought it in Nov 1974 from Zebra Service Station Ltd in Papatoetoe for $2750. Sold it in Aug 1975 for $2800! I was a Uni student at the time and had to raise the cash for an air fare to the UK to go on a Dorian Singers' tour. Pretty much been in the UK ever since. I was out of Jags for nearly 40 years, seduced by other classics such as Daimler Dart, NSU RO80, Jensen CV8 Mk III, TVR Tuscan, Lancia Fulvia Zagato, and, for almost 30 years, a 1968 Iso Grifo 7-Litre. Finally persuaded to sell that about a year and a half ago, and am now back in a 1950 XK120 OTS (bronze with biscuit & tan interior) which I'm really enjoying fettling. I've put it back to the original disc wheels and rear spats, and even gone back to drum brakes! Upcoming article in the XK Gazette, if anyone belongs to the UK XK Club.
Who is Ron Eaton, Duncan?

[ERC]

48274

Taken at Manfeild 1999, Bryan at the wheel. A lovely man. Wife Marion looking on and looks like Brian Grant to the left.

[chrisl]

Great pic! I see it's wearing the number 27 which it had when Ray Archibald came 6th in the Lady Wigram 100 miles in 1954.
48339

[chrisl]

48340
Me sitting in 660864 (which I christened "Xerxes") in about 1975 at our flat in Ranfurly Rd, Epsom.

[AMCO72]

Chrisl..........could this be the Chris L who I knew as a member of the JDC in the mid 70's......If it is......a big hello to you Chris. Do you remember coming out to the farm in that car and us going for a burn up the road.......On our return something serious happened to the engine.......timing chain I think and you stored the car in my garage for a week or 3......That was one wild car and I always thought it inappropriate for a cultured chap like you......Regards Gerald Fogg.

[chrisl]

Gerald!!! How very nice to hear from you! And a big hello to you, too. Do you still have the Mk IV and the SS1 tourer?
Yes, I remember the occasion very well indeed, and still tell that story. While sitting in the XK before leaving to go back to Auckland with the engine idling, it suddenly stopped dead with an ominous clunk... On lifting the bonnet we were met with the sight of timing chain hanging out of broken cam cover. Imagine if that had happened at the speeds of up to 90mph we had just been doing! Turned out that the top chain tensioner had not been correctly locked in place and had come loose, allowing the pistons to meet the valves. The head was toast, but luckily, only a couple of small marks on the piston tops. I raided the 3.8 Mk 2 I had previously sold to my flatmate for its B-Type head and put that on the 120.
I always hankered for another XK120 and now I have a very nice early roadster. Trouble is, with current daytime temps in England of 2 or 3 degs, I'm not tempted to venture out in it - I'm not the hardy chap I once was!
Still singing - worked at the Royal Opera House now for nigh-on 28 years - time to hang up the larynx soon, I think...
Hope all goes well with you, and many thanks for making contact again.
Chris

[chrisl]

48371

My 1950 XK120 660405 after converting to LEDs

[chrisl]

48372
Car is now back on disc wheels and spats, as originally built

[AMCO72]

Chris, clearly you have a few more dollars in the bank now.........remember the old days when you couldnt afford to mend your shoes and carried a piece of linoleum, or was it cardboard around with you to put under your shoes to stop the rising damp ! Have a great pic somewhere of you posed by your MK4 half in a deep drain by the side of the road........you were giving the Victory signal of course. You were what I call a real enthusiast, as anyone who has read your post above will see by the sort of cars you drove. My MK4 and SS long gone.....into sensible cars now like Hondas........Anyway, love the XK120, and the colour........I believe this was a factory option as I had a friend with a MK5 painted the same. I know this is way off topic for the Archibald cars, but too bad, it was 660864 that started it all.

[Steve Holmes]

Chrisl..........could this be the Chris L who I knew as a member of the JDC in the mid 70's......If it is......a big hello to you Chris. Do you remember coming out to the farm in that car and us going for a burn up the road.......On our return something serious happened to the engine.......timing chain I think and you stored the car in my garage for a week or 3......That was one wild car and I always thought it inappropriate for a cultured chap like you......Regards Gerald Fogg.

What a great thread this is! Even better for putting you and Chris back in touch with each other.

My wife and I are currently staying in France and I can vouch for Chris regarding the temperatures.

[ERC]

Can't remember whether this was a scanner focus issue or an out of focus photograph on a slow shutter speed! Probably the latter.

I'm pretty sure there was either a front cover shot in NZCC magazine, or an article about that time.

48397

[AMCO72]

I felt the car lost something when it was restored and gained fat wheels and a rollbar. Compare it with post 24 in all its original guise, was one hell of car back then........but it was also just another troublesome English sports car. When I came to sell my XK120 DHC I had a big job getting 500 pounds for it... this was in 1967.....no one wanted it. Of course I should have shoved it in a shed and forgotten about it.......but I needed a practical car for farming purposes......Bryan Wyness had promised me a drive, but it never happened. Never mind, I consider myself fortunate to have been behind the wheel.

[chrisl]

What a great thread this is! Even better for putting you and Chris back in touch with each other.

My wife and I are currently staying in France and I can vouch for Chris regarding the temperatures.

I wish the current owner would look at the thread again, and get in touch... I guess you're facing the same chilly northerlies in France that we are afflicted with!

[chrisl]

Chris, clearly you have a few more dollars in the bank now.........remember the old days when you couldnt afford to mend your shoes and carried a piece of linoleum, or was it cardboard around with you to put under your shoes to stop the rising damp ! Have a great pic somewhere of you posed by your MK4 half in a deep drain by the side of the road........you were giving the Victory signal of course. You were what I call a real enthusiast, as anyone who has read your post above will see by the sort of cars you drove. My MK4 and SS long gone.....into sensible cars now like Hondas........Anyway, love the XK120, and the colour........I believe this was a factory option as I had a friend with a MK5 painted the same. I know this is way off topic for the Archibald cars, but too bad, it was 660864 that started it all.

Gerald,

I can't say I remember the shoe situation, but it's true I didn't have a pot to p--s in as a student back then! Can't imagine how I talked a finance company into letting me buy any car, let alone a Jag, on hire purchase.
I'd love to see that pic of my mishap with the Mark IV sometime. I remember Alex Bright writing in the Auckland JDC mag "83 x 106" about my carving a 6 foot grin into a clay bank - "you could say, putting a smile into banking" he said, quoting a popular bank advert of the time!
My current XK120 is back in its original colours of Jaguar Bronze with Biscuit & Tan interior - one of my favourites, I have to say. Maybe my absolute favourite is Suede Green, mainly because I saw an absolutely pristine 120 in that colour on disc wheels and spats in Archibalds' showroom in about 1968. It obviously made a big impression on me!
I first saw 660864 at the Nelson showgrounds in the early 1970s, which was a stopping point for a huge NZ vintage car rally. It was then owned by Duncan Purse, who had restored it (very nicely) and it was at that time on body-coloured wires. By the time I acquired it, it had gone back onto the ENV axle with disc wheels, and was lacking the spats. Little did I realise when admiring it at that rally that I would one day be its custodian!

[Autopia]

Hi Duncan, good to hear from you. Charlie Conway had it on behalf, think the owner lived near Puke....$12,500 which I had to beg and borrow to get!



Hi Rob,
long time no speak. Who did you buy it from first?

[Autopia]

48468
Pukekohe, 1981

[ERC]

https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/plusw/698833815.jpg

NZ Classic Car magazine - December 2004 - Listing on TradeMe - NZ version of Ebay, at the moment.

[chrisl]

https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/plusw/698833815.jpg

NZ Classic Car magazine - December 2004 - Listing on TradeMe - NZ version of Ebay, at the moment.

Managed to get a copy on Ebay a while back.

[JC1]

Apologies for the absence.60296

The Mark2 has been fully recommissioned so it is a reliable daily runner without destroying any of the original soul or patina. It's a great car and a lot of fun to drive. Registered 5800 AO in the UK is as close as I was able to get to its NZ reg of AQ5800 (there is no Q in UK road registration). I took the attached photo at Goodwood Motor Circuit last year. The car is retired from motor racing and will stay as a road car to preserve its condition. It's an important piece of Jaguar history and needs preserving.

Thank you for all your comments and pictures. We are about to start on the XK120 with the intention of making it look just like at did in the 1954 GP, except I will leave the 3.8L engine and disc brakes as it just makes it a more fun drive. I will send pictures when it is completed, but that won't be for a while.

[JC1]

Hi Chris,

Sorry to have missed this post. Please contact me at johncorrie@gmail when convenient.

The car is stored at my engineer's workshop near Silverstone and once we start work on it I would be delighted to meet you there and show you the car again.

Best, John

[AMCO72]

Hi Chris,

Sorry to have missed this post. Please contact me at johncorrie@gmail when convenient.

The car is stored at my engineer's workshop near Silverstone and once we start work on it I would be delighted to meet you there and show you the car again.

Best, John

Attention Chris Lachner........I have found the photo of you with the Mk4 in the ditch......Please send me your email and I will forward it on to you.......Gerald Fogg.

[chrisl]

Attention Chris Lachner........I have found the photo of you with the Mk4 in the ditch......Please send me your email and I will forward it on to you.......Gerald Fogg.

Thanks so much, Gerald, that would be brilliant!
chrisgrifo68@gmail.com

[chrisl]

Hi Gerald,
I got your email with the great pic (many thanks!) but every time I try to reply to your email address it is rejected "due to possible spam content" which it certainly doesn't have! Any ideas??

[AMCO72]

Hi Chris.........no I'm sorry, dont know what is wrong there.....I'll send you another email with no photo and see if that works......I have confirmed your friend request........Gerald.

[chrisl]

Gerald, I tried sending emails with pictures, then with no pictures - same result, even when I tried not replying, but starting a fresh email from scratch... Sent a personal message on Facebook, too. Maybe better to communicate there, rather than hijacking this thread? Could be something to do with your spam settings, perhaps...?

[OctaneSimon]

Great thread. Thanks for saving AQ5800. Fabulous car.

I own a Pearl Grey Jaguar Mark I - originally delivered with a 2.4 engine to Archibald’s Garage, Christchurch, New Zealand, ostensibly ordered for Dr Philip Melville-Heath. However, this car arrived on 27 March 1958 and was used by Archibald for 17 months until 2 September 1959, when it was finally registered AL 6200 to Dr Melville-Heath.

Does anyone have pictures of Ray's Mark I cars? (I believe he had two, the second one likely a 1959 car arriving right when my car was finally registered).

I'm also looking for the original NZ plates for the car (or reproductions) AL 6200. Does anyone know where to get 1958 type NZ plates made up?

My car is now looked after by CKL and I am planning to race some select races in Europe in 2021.
All best, Simon

68379

[chrisl]

Just came across this old picture taken in Auckland in 1975. I'm with my ex Archibald XK120, and with with me is then Auckland JDC President, Alex Bright with his E-Type.72162

[chrisl]

Another pic from 1975, outside our student flat in Ranfurly Rd, Epsom, Auckland. I was known to sport a deerstalker hat and a calabash pipe a la Sherlock Holmes...what a twit!
72163

[Roger Dowding]

" Just came across this old picture taken in Auckland in 1975. I'm with my ex Archibald XK120, and with with me is then Auckland JDC President, Alex Bright with his E-Type. ".

ChrisL,

turned the photo - and also had a look at the " Carjam " site [ connected to NZTA Motor Registrations - Both Rego plates ;
" DU6477 " and " DJ5788 " are no longer showing.

Do you know where the XK120 is now ?

72184

[Carman1959007]

A photo or two on the sprague family photos , good ones of Ray,s Jag

Hi Grant

I've tried to send you a message but your inbox is full. Hope you have time to respond.

[Roger Dowding]

Great thread. Thanks for saving AQ5800. Fabulous car.

I own a Pearl Grey Jaguar Mark I - originally delivered with a 2.4 engine to Archibald’s Garage, Christchurch, New Zealand, ostensibly ordered for Dr Philip Melville-Heath. However, this car arrived on 27 March 1958 and was used by Archibald for 17 months until 2 September 1959, when it was finally registered AL 6200 to Dr Melville-Heath.

Does anyone have pictures of Ray's Mark I cars? (I believe he had two, the second one likely a 1959 car arriving right when my car was finally registered).

I'm also looking for the original NZ plates for the car (or reproductions) AL 6200. Does anyone know where to get 1958 type NZ plates made up?

My car is now looked after by CKL and I am planning to race some select races in Europe in 2021.
All best, Simon

68379

" AL 6200 " would be the plate issued in July 1964 - It is a permanent plate issue. Prior to July 1964 plates were numerical only with up to six digits and a symbol in the middle.
- Plates in 1959 were Light numbers on a dark red Plate, the 1956 - 61 issue, in 1961 - 64 plates were Black numbers on a yellow Plate.

In NZ these days you can get - personalised and customised Plates from various makers.