Jaguar D-Type

This car was in the paddock at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004 promoting a raffle to raise funds to finance a statue to Mike Hawthorn and 'Lofty' England at Goodwood.

'Lofty' England was the manager of the Jaguar team when they won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1955 with a Jaguar D-Type driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb. The car above is a Jaguar D-Type with the same registration and race numbers as the car which won that race and looks identical to that car in every way, except for the rather spindly-looking rear view mirror. It apparently has the chassis number of the Le Mans winning car, XKD505, but like the proverbial 50-year old hammer that's had four new handles and 2 new heads bits and pieces of the car have been swapped around and renewed in the intervening years. It looks like the real thing though, and that's the main thing. The statue was commissioned, and eventually unveiled on 17 September 2005.