1952 “Incarcerated Drag Jag” XK120

David Duthu’s appetite for interesting and eclectic cars seems to be boundless. He vintage races a Bugatti Type 35A and a Talbot Lago T-26C. He also owns Chet Herbert’s 1953 Beast IV Bonneville Streamliner, a Porsche 356 Art Car, a series III Lotus Super 7, a 1958 300SL Roadster and a 1924 Ford Triple-Springer Board Track Racer…and that’s just for starters. One of Duthu’s particular areas of passion/obsession is Jaguars. There’s no telling how many Jags he’s owned over the years, but he currently has four E-Types in his stable alongside his coveted 1952 ex-Tom Foreman/Walt Hansgen XK120 racer. Could he possibly need another Jag? Read on.

One day a few years ago Duthu received a telephone call from his friend Harvey Jenkins about an old Jaguar sitting in the driveway of a house on the east side of San Antonio, Texas. Jenkins had learned about the car from his wife Nell who heard about it from a member of their church. The story was that the car belonged to an elderly woman who was keeping it for her son. Apparently the son had been gone for decades and the Jag had been unattended since the early ’70s.