Jaguar D-Type

This car competed in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's a 1956 Jaguar D-type, chassis number XKD603, said to be the most original of the long-nose Jaguars in existence. It started as a works car in 1956, but when Jaguar dropped out of racing the following year it was sold to Ecurie Ecosse, where it received its RSF 303 registration number. The car finished second in the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hour race when Ecurie Ecosse D-types were first and second, and three more D-types finished third, fourth and sixth.The car was entered for the Silverstone race by J C Bamford Excavators and was driven by Frank Sytner.

Ecurie Ecosse

Ecurie Ecosse was a Scottish motor racing team founded in 1952 and best known for its exploits at the Le Mans 24 Hour race, winning the event in both 1956 and 1957 with their Jaguar D-types. Former Ecurie Ecosse cars were well represented at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995:

This is one of the Jaguar D-types,a 1955 car, owned and driven in the 1995 race by John Harper

A 1956 D-type, driven in 1995 by Frank Sytner and owned by J C Bamford

The 1959 Tojeiro Jaguar, owned in 1995 by the Altera Corporation and driven by Barrie Williams

The Tojeiro again, and behind it is the 1960 Ecurie Ecosse Commer transporter

In 1957 a Race of Two Worlds was organised at Monza for teams from the Formula One World Championship based in Europe to compete against American Indianapolis cars on the banked oval part of the Monza Autodrome. Apart from an entry from Maserati and a privateer Ferrari the only European cars entered were three Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-types. The race was run again in 1958 and this time Ecurie Ecosse entered two D-types and a specially built Lister-Jaguar with a single-seater body, which is the car shown above, although the aluminium body remained unpainted for the 1958 race. After that race the event was discontinued due to both the costs involved and safety concerns. The Lister was owned and driven in 1995 by Ric Weiland.