1956 Jaguar D-Type

This car was one of a number of Jaguars on display in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's a Jaguar D-Type and I've seen photographs describing it as a 1954 car, although the DVLA say that YSU 740 is a yellow 1956 Jaguar, and the yellow racing colour of Belgium seems to imply that it was at one time campaigned by one of the 1950s Belgian racing teams. After much searching I've found that it is chassis XKD573 and was originally loaned to the Equipe Nationale Belge to compete in the 1956 Le Mans 24 Hour race, having been uprated to full works Jaguar D-Type specifications, including quick change front brake calipers and a wide angle cylinder head. The car was driven by Jacques Swaters and Freddie Rousselle at Le Mans and finished in fourth place, the race being won by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson in an Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type. After the race the car went back to the Jaguar factory where standard cylinder head and front brake calipers were fitted and the car was then sold to Equipe Nationale Belge. The Belgian team kept the car until the end of the 1957 racing season, and the only record I can find of it racing after then is when it was driven by a Francis Francis in the 1963 Japanese Sports  Car Grand Prix.

Three weeks after its fourth place in the 1956 Le Mans 24 Hour race, in August 1956, it was driven by Freddie Rousselle in the Daily Express International Trophy Race at Oulton Park where I took this photograph in the Paddock.

The car is apparently now in the Franschhoek Motor Museum in South Africa.