My Dad took this photo in June 2000. That’s me behind the wheel of his 1954 Jaguar XK 120.
We were on the 3rd day of the La Carrera Nevada, which was some inspired lunacy involving pre-1955 cars and a whole lot of open (and some that should have been closed) roads. At this point, if I recall correctly we had just left the pavement and were travelling along at 60+ MPH on a pretty nice gravel road. We were travelling through yet another huge and virtually empty, uninhabited Nevada valley. I had turned to my father a few moments before and said “I don’t think this is what Sir William had in mind when he built this car.” 😉
Ye Olde XK was not designed to be an off-road vehicle, but it held up admirably that week, finishing the rally that killed many more supposedly rugged machines (big “Yank Tanks” of the early 50s.) You can read the full story in the “goolsbee.org content links” to the right. Six years later and we haven’t changed a bit, off again to participate in another bit of inspired lunacy. We leave in one day. I can barely contain myself.