This particular car was built in February 1958, finished in Indigo Blue, and was equipped with overdrive. It cost £2,007 when new and was originally supplied through Henlys Limited in London to the first owner in Surrey, but nothing is known of its early history.

It was acquired for the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust in 1983, and was restored with the help of the Manchester College of Technology.

The XK150 was the third and final stage in the evolution of the XK concept. The model was launched in May 1957, initially with a choice of fixed head and drophead coupé bodies. The open two-seater followed a little later, and was at first available only with left-hand drive for export, with most of these cars going to the USA.

The styling of the XK150 was modernised, and if the car had lost some of the lithe grace that had characterised the first and purest version of the XK design, it had clearly become more muscular. There were other worthwhile improvements. Although a ‘standard’ XK150 with disc wheels and drum brakes was quoted in the catalogue, it is believed that virtually all production cars were of the ‘Special Equipment’ model, which had wire wheels and four-wheel disc brakes.

The 3.4 litre engine was available in three different stages of tune, 190bhp for the standard model, 210bhp for the Special Equipment model and 250bhp on the new ‘S’ model which was introduced in early 1959. This was not the end of the story either, as Jaguar in 1959 introduced a bigger XK engine of 3.8 litres. From October 1959, there was a 3.8 litre XK150 with 220bhp, and an ‘S’ version with a quoted 265bhp. This was the most powerful of all the XK production models, and reached no less than 136 mph (219km/h) in an independent road test.

When the XK150 was discontinued in 1960, total production of the XK range since 1948 was over 30,000 cars, of which 9,385 were XK150 models.