2011-12-02 19:32:30 | pauls writes:

Notes from Rafe Saber:
The XK 140 chassis # S800062 was filmed on the Great Ocean Road, Geelong, Victoria to Mt. Gambier, S. Australia. It was filmed in 1987. The classy lady driving the 140 is Rosie Arnold. Information provided by Terry Mcgrath on page 32 of the Feb 2010 XK Gazette. Terry states the 1st owner as being Nevil Shute Norway the famous British/Australian novelist.
www.youtube.com/watch

2016-08-16 14:55:40 | pauls writes:

From Jaguar Magazine 8/16/16
www.jaguarmagazine.com/nevil-shute-novelist-xk140-racer-much/

Many people know the name 'Nevil Shute' but most don't know his amazing life - or the fact he loved Jaguars - his rare XK140 Roadster in particular. The shot above was taken on the main straight at Phillip Island.

Nevil Shute Norway was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.

Shute was commended for his role as a stretcher bearer in WW1. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, but because of his stammer was unable to take up a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.

An aeronautical engineer as well as a pilot, he began his engineering career with the De Havilland Aircraft Company. He took a position in 1924 with Vickers Ltd., where he was involved with the development of airships, working as Chief Calculator on the R100 airship project for the Vickers subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company. In 1929 he was promoted to Deputy Chief Engineer of the R100 project under Barnes Wallis and when Wallis left the project he became the Chief Engineer.

In WW2 his celebrity as a writer caused the Ministry of Information to send him to the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 and later to Burma as a correspondent. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander, RNVR.

In 1948 Shute flew his own plane to Australia and back, with the writer James Riddell. On his return home, concerned about the general decline in his home country, he decided that he and his family would emigrate and so, in 1950, he settled with his wife and two daughters on farmland at Langwarrin, south-east of Melbourne.

In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best-selling novelists.

Between 1956 and 1958 in Australia, he took up car racing as a hobby, driving a white Jaguar XK140. Some of this experience found its way into his book On the Beach.

A few months after suffering a heart attack in November 1955, he wrote to one of his friends informing them that: "I suddenly went crazy the other day and ordered an open two-seater Jaguar XK140 so you will probably see my obituary before long."

The Jaguar was delivered to Brysons, in Melbourne on 8th March 1956, and delivered to Shute on 11th May 1956. This was the only XK140 Special Equipment Roadster sold in Melbourne in 1956; only 12 SE roadsters were made in that year, and only two were shipped to Australia.

Nevil Shute was a regular competitor at the new Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and regularly raced his white Jaguar XK140. He was quite competent, placing in scratch races, but mostly raced purely for the enjoyment of it.

He died in 1960 after suffering a stroke, but his famous novels, many turned into major movies, include On The Beach, A Town Like Alice, The Far Country and Beyond The Black Stump.

His XK140 is chassis 800062, and it was traded at Brysons by Shute on an XK150. It has remained in Australia, mostly in Melbourne.