Chassis No. 637251

Engine No. SL3199

Body No. C1315

It's a perfectly British thing to do. After years of war and the resulting rationing and hardship, those at the newly renamed Jaguar Cars Ltd. simply went back to work in 1945. There's no better way to dust off a foe than to return to exactly what you were doing before the fight. Smartly, they chose to continue making their successful and elegant line of saloons, now widely known as the "Mark IV," with engine sizes available in 1 ½, 2 ½ , and 3 ½ -liter displacement. Naturally, the 3 ½-liter overhead valve engine was the one to have, with the stout inline-six cylinder good for 125-horsepower and a 100 mph top speed. In addition to the three different engine sizes, Sir William Lyons' company offered these models as both a four-door "Sports Saloon" or a two-door convertible body called a "Drophead Coupe." The Drophead Coupe design provided the wind-in-the-hair experience well known to Lyons from his earliest pre-war days creating bespoke motorcycle and sidecar designs.

According to Jaguar Heritage Trust, this 3 ½-Litre Mark IV Drophead Coupe chassis number 637251 was produced on 17 June 1948 and first sold as a left-hand-drive example through International Motors in Los Angeles, California. Originally finished in Battleship Grey over a black interior, today it wears a fetching two-tone exterior livery of maroon with black fenders. The exterior features all the highly finished jewelry expected on a post-war luxury car including painted knock-off wire wheels with whitewall tires, dual fender mirrors, landau bars, and an accessory badge bar. The interior, with seating for five, has been smartly restored in tan leather with an appropriately matched three-position beige soft top. Smiths gauges are set into a burlwood dashboard, with additional wood trim surrounding the windshield and door tops. A toolkit is exquisitely integrated into the trunk lid and a driver's Instruction Book completes the amenities.

Since joining the Academy of Art University Collection in 2010, this matching-numbers example of Jaguar's final pre-war Jaguar saloon has rubbed shoulders with many of the finest, artfully designed vehicles made, and for good reason! Jaguar Mark IV's, especially well-restored examples in 3 ½-Litre specification with the rare, flowing Drophead Coupe coachwork with seating for five, are the epitome of the space, grace, and pace for which post-war Jaguars are known.