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Aussie wins at Montereys Quail Motorsport Gathering

Local talent takes out top honours in the Custom Coachwork class at Monterey’s Quail

2019 seemed to be the year of the Aussie Assault at Monterey’s esteemed Car Week.

With our good friend John Bowe piloting Carroll Shelby’s former 1952 Allard, and Paul Freestone’s Holden 48-215 tackling the 1947-1955 Sports Racing class at the Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion (valiantly finishing 3rd and 10th respectively), there were also a couple of home-grown boys flying the flag on the manicured lawns of Pebble Beach’s Quail Motorsport’s Gathering.

Melbourne-based Jordan Roddy flew out his 2004 American Le Mans-competing Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT, to take part in the Post-war Racing class; alongside Brisbane-based Mark Jansen of Oldtimer Australia who had his incredibly rare 1971 Monteverdi 375L High Speed on the lawns of Quail.

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The big-achiever, however, was Barry Fitzgerald’s show-stopping Jaguar XK120, built by Justin Hills of Hills & Co Customs; and outright winner of Quail’s Custom Coachwork class.

To even be on the lawn at Pebble Beach is an honour in itself, with cars from all corners of the world vying for the most prestigious awards in the car world; but to win means your car is truly something incredible.

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The XK120 is fully built in-house by Justin Hills, with hand-beaten custom coachwork adorning every square inch of sheetmetal and a fully custom interior. The car was built as Hill’s vision of the ultimate period Jaguar, with a dramatic 3 inch roof chop combined with airbag suspension giving it that elegant Jaguar ‘low-drag’ look.

It’s got the power to back up the purposeful aerodynamic body too, thanks to a 5.0lt V12 lifted out of a Jaguar XJS.

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From sunny California, the XK120 will now head to England where it has been nominated for Bespoke Car of the Year. With one win under its belt on arguably one of the biggest stages of the car world, we hope to see its show-winning momentum continue.

Special thanks to Damon of Auto Attention, and Nathan of NS Images who provided the photos

 

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