Here’s one of the great stories in automotive history compressed into a three-minute video: presenting the glorious tale of the 1948-54 Jaguar XK120.

It’s difficult to overstate the impact of the Jaguar XK120 when it first appeared in October of 1948 on the floor of the London Motor Show at Earl’s Court. Named for its stunning top speed of 120 mph, the XK120 was both impossibly fast and impossibly beautiful, and car enthusiasts were gobsmacked. In some ways they still haven’t gotten over it.

Jaguar chief William Lyons liked to say he drew the roadster’s pure and timeless lines with a few strokes of the pen. But at the same time, the XK series engine developed  by William Heynes, Walter Hassan, and Claude Baily was a masterpiece of precision and detail. More than 12,000 XK120 models were produced, including fixed-head coupe and roll-up convertible body styles for the upmarket crowd, and Jaguar was propelled from British cottage manufacturer to world-class sports car maker, a position the company enjoys to this day. (The XK120 also spawned XK140 and XK150 successor models you can read about here.) This little video doesn’t tell the entire XK120 story by any means, but it’s an entertaining start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrwpy2n_uZE