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Driven by: John Fitch
Exterior Color: Deep Blue
Interior Color: Black
Limited Edition: 51 Serialized Units with Plaque
Certificate of Authenticity: Hand-signed by John Fitch, co-designer of the Fitch Whitmore Jaguar Le Mans Special
Founders Edition Features: Presented as raced by John Fitch without roll-bar or license plate frame
Automodello Official Release Date: 2012
Orders accepted with specific reservations subject to availability.
There are innovators like John Fitch who, together with artist friend Coby Whitmore, took a step further by crafting something truly exceptional from modest production car-based beginnings to reach greatness.
John Fitch teamed with Colby Whitmore in the latter’s new Jaguar XK120 at Sebring in 1949, but felt the car had more to give, especially if it could shed some unwanted pounds - go on a diet so to speak. So off came the Coventry-crafted body, exposing the Jaguar XK120’s capable chassis and 3.4L straight-6. In its place, Whitmore and Fitch designed a minimalist but exquisite fuselage-like aluminum skin, complete with charismatic bicycle fenders. The metalwork was hand-shaped by Fitch bodyman Andy Salada. In addition to being utterly unique and undeniably gorgeous, it weighed some 800lb less than the original Jaguar XK120. The chassis remained stock save recalibrated springs to exploit the lighter load, and the big Jaguar 6 remained unmolested beyond a more aggressive camshaft.
In Fitch’s deft hands, the Le Mans Special (ironically named, as it never actually made the trip to France) was a revelation, easily dusting off stock Jaguar XK120s and other class machines. So dominant was John Fitch in his Special that he caught the eye of Briggs Cunningham, who quickly signed him as a team driver. As such, the Fitch-Whitmore Special’s racing career was short but luminous. It stands now as a tribute to John Fitch’s common-sense engineering genius, Colby Whitmore’s aesthetic brilliance, and as the start of an historic racing career.
Automodello™ adds the Fitch-Whitmore Jaguar Le Mans Special to its stable of innovative American sports car legends. Cleverly imagined and beautifully executed, its character fits perfectly with Automodello’s mission to bring to life important, worthy, but lesser-known machines. Like every Automodello release, it is crafted to exacting standards to meet the approval of the designer and engineer himself, John Fitch. Automodello is a manufacturer specializing in overlooked, neglected and interesting as well as new models from British, European, North American and other marques.
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