“Boy’s Own” Racer

Personally speaking, I’m not an advocate of racing specials, especially those cars built that have little, or no period history. Having said that, I am always curious to investigate the background of interesting cars. The who, why, what and heritage of a vehicle sometimes holds an intriguing story. It is for this reason we profile the Jaguar Gomm. From the outside, the car looks every bit a sports racing car of the 1950s, however, it wasn’t built until a handful of years ago. So, as I say, it has no period competition history, nor did it exist in its current guise during the 1950s, the era of racing history that it represents. While the car itself didn’t exist, some of the component parts indeed did, but in a previous incarnation. As it stands today, the chassis is a 1955 Jaguar XK140 and motor racing fabrication guru Maurice Gomm constructed the body. So, to say this car has a checkered history would be a gross understatement. The fact is, the background of the car is more variegated and touches many facets of the sport, including noted manufacturers, drivers, engineers and fabricators. Despite its current tender age the car has been invited to participate and has competed in many FISCAR (Fifties Sports Car Racing Club) and HSCC (Historic Sports Car Club) race meetings, it has also been entered in a good number of classic rallies. There are many strands to this story, so I’ll present them individually, so you can appreciate how the car builds, piece by piece.

Genesis