1955 Jaguar D-Type

This is a photograph that I took just outside the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It’s a 1955 Jaguar D-Type and the registration number 774 RW seems to indicate that it is  XKD505, the car with which Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

This car competed in a  Scratch Race for 1950's Sports/Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in August 1996.

It's Andrew Pisker's 1955 Jaguar D-Type with the later 3,781cc version of the 6-cylinder inline Jaguar XK engine. The car is chassis XKD544 and has a very interesting history detailed in the coventryracers website. It was driven in the race by Ian Donaldson.

1954 Jaguar D-Type

This car undergoing some attention in the paddock was one of the competitors in the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1954 Jaguar D-Type of Don Law Racing that was driven in the race by Win Percy. It has the 3,781cc 6-cylinder inline XK6 engine which was released in 1958 and which was fitted to some D-Types in place of the original 3,441cc engine.

1957 Maserati 300S

This car took part in the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1957 Maserati 300S, chassis #3074, of Mark Knopfler and has a 2,991cc 6-cylinder inline engine that was based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a longer stroke, and took part in the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1957. The car was originally bought by Brazilian driver Antonio Mendes de Barros and stayed in South America till the 1970s when it was acquired by Australian Bruce Spicer, then via Bob Jane and John R Sheppard to Kerry Manolas. In 1994 it was bought by Mark Knopfler. The white number 11 car behind the Maserati is the Don Law Racing 1954 Jaguar D-Type which was driven in the race by Win Percy, and beyond that is Paul Pappalardo’s 1959 Ferrari 250TR59/60.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It's Benjamin Eastick's 1955 Jaguar D-Type which was built in the 1970's from genuine Jaguar D-type parts and has chassis number XKD 133, but never ran in period. Neither the chassis number nor the registration number 207 RW show up in the coventryracers.com search site. It has the 6-cylinder inline 3,442cc Jaguar XK engine.

1956 Jaguar D-Type

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during the Classic Car Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Frank Sytner in Anthony Bamford's 1956 Jaguar D-Type, a former Ecurie Ecosse car, chassis XKD603. I can't identify the car behind him but the following red car is the 1960 Maserati T61, chassis 2458, of Lindsay Owen Jones and in the background is the 1957 Maserati 250S of Robin Lodge, chassis 2432.

Cooper T51 and Jaguar D-Type

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 featured a tribute to Juan Manuel Fangio and there was a display of cars in the paddock in which he had competed in the 1950s. His nephew Juan Manuel Fangio II drove a Maserati 250F in track displays during the meeting and was joined by several other cars that had been displayed in the paddock beside those of Fangio. This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during one of the displays.

Neither of these cars competed in any of the races at this meeting and the leading car here is a 1959 Cooper T51, the car that took Jack Brabham to his first World Championship success in that year. Behind it is a 1955 Jaguar D-Type, one of the long-nose models that won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, and this car is XKD606, a former Ecurie Ecosse car.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

I took this photograph at Lodge Corner during the Scratch Race for 1950's Sports/Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at a wet Oulton Park in August 1996.

It's Ian Donaldson in Andrew Pisker's 1955 Jaguar D-Type with the later 3,781cc version of the 6-cylinder inline Jaguar XK engine. The car is chassis XKD544 and has a very interesting history detailed in the coventryracers website.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

This is a photograph I took just outside the paddock at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

I don't know what it was doing there, but it's a 1955 Jaguar D-Type with a registration number ending in '....4 RW' and the only D-Type which matches that is XKD505 (774 RW). It doesn't appear to be a replica, so it seems to be the car with which Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

Jaguars

I took this photograph of two Jaguars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in July 2000.

On the left is a 1950 Jaguar XK120 with the 6-cylinder inline 3,442cc Jaguar XK engine. The car on the right appears to be a Jaguar D Type and the DVLA records say that it is a 1956 Jaguar XKSS D Type, first registered (presumably in its converted form) in 1990, with a 3.8 litre engine. The original XKSS cars were produced in 1957 when Jaguar converted 25 unsold D-Types into road cars, although 9 of these cars were destroyed in a fire at the Browns Lane factory before they left the production line.

Ecurie Ecosse

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the British Empire Trophy Race meeting in April 1956.

The Ecurie Ecosse team had entered two Jaguar D-Types in the race to be driven by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson and here are some of the team at the side of one of the D-Types. On the left is Ron Flockhart in conversation with the founder of the team, David Murray, and next to David Murray is chief mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson. The British Empire Trophy Race was run as three preliminary heats (up to 1.5 litres, 1.6 to 2.7 litres and over 2.7 litres) and a final for the qualifying cars run as a handicap race. This proved very advantageous for the smaller capacity cars which finished in the first six places (Stirling Moss winning in a Cooper T39 Bobtail) with Ron Flockhart finishing in seventh place and Ninian Sanderson in ninth place. Three months later Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson won the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in one of these Ecurie Ecosse cars.

1956 Jaguar D-Type

This was one of the competitors in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1956 Jaguar D-Type, chassis number XKD603, of Sir Anthony Bamford, 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 driven in this Silverstone race by Frank Sytner.

1954 Jaguar D-Type

The Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003 included a round of the BRDC Historic Sports Cars Championship, and here is one of the cars that took part in that race.

It's the 1954 Jaguar D-Type chassis XKC402 which finished second that year in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race. It was driven in that race by Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton and at the end of the season the car was sold to Duncan Hamilton. I remember seeing Duncan Hamilton drive this car at the first motor race I ever attended, the 1955 British Empire Trophy Race at Oulton Park, where he finished in seventh place. At the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting in 2003 the car was driven by Peter Neumark.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

I photographed this car approaching Lodge Corner during the Scratch Race for 1950's Sports/Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at a wet Oulton Park in August 1996.

It's Ian Donaldson in Andrew Pisker's 1955 Jaguar D-Type with the later 3,781cc version of the 6-cylinder inline Jaguar XK engine. The car is chassis XKD544 and has a very interesting history detailed in the coventryracers website.

Ecurie Ecosse Commer TS3 Transporter

This vehicle was in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

This is the 1960 Ecurie Ecosse Commer TS3 Transporter, on top of which are a Jaguar C-Type, and a Jaguar D-Type that I can't identify. The Jaguar C-Type is chassis XKC042 and was provided new to Ecurie Ecosse in 1953.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

This car competed in the 1950's Sports Car Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It's David Pennell's 1955 Jaguar D-Type and has the later 3,781cc 6-cylinder inline XK6 engine. The DVLA show it as a 1955 car that was first registered in 1978 but I've not been able to ascertain the chassis number of this car after going through chassis details of all the Jaguar D-Types on the Coventry Racers website. It may well be a replica.

Jaguar D-Type Replica

I took this photograph at the Jaguar Drivers' Club's Cheshire Cats Trophy Meeting at Oulton Park in April 1987.

It resembles a 1956 Jaguar D-Type, but it's obviously a replica as the shape of the car isn't quite right. I can't find out much about the car, except that the DVLA says it's a Jaguar that was manufactured in 1970 and has a 4,235cc engine - which is the capacity of the 4.2 litre version of the Jaguar XK engine.

1958 Lotus Eleven

This was one of the competitors in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Peter Austin's 1958 Lotus Eleven, about 270 of which were built by the Lotus Company between 1956 and 1958. The Lotus Eleven was built with a variety of engines of different sizes from 750cc to 1500cc, and the programme of the event shows Peter Austin's car to have a 1,089cc engine. The red car at the side of the Lotus is Burkhard von Schenk's 1957 Maserati 300SI, and behind are the 1957 Jaguar D-Type of Sir Anthony Bamford (driven by Frank Sytner) and the 1957 Lotus Eleven of Malcolm Ricketts.

1956 Jaguar D-Type

This car competed in the HGPCA's Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1956 Jaguar D-Type of Andrew Baber with a 6-cylinder inline 3,781cc engine and is being driven by Timo Makinen. The chassis number is XKD530 which is a car that was originally supplied to Kurt Lincoln of Helsinki and was raced at that time by Timo Makinen amongst others. After being campaigned in Finland for several years, including participation in ice racing, the car came into the hands of Nigel Moores in the mid-1960s. It required a complete rebuild, and at that time different parts of the car were used to create two D-Types, both bearing the XKD530 identification. This car has the registration number XSV 979, and the other car is PAS 645. By 2002 both cars had been acquired by Gary Bartlett who had them completely dismantled and all the original parts that could be proved to have been part of the original XKD530 were incorporated into one car with the registration number XSV 979. The remaining parts were built into the replica car PAS 645.

1957 Jaguar D-Type

This car was listed in the programme as a reserve for the HGPCA Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1957 Jaguar D-Type of Thomas Bscher with the driver listed in the programme as Robert Pferdmenges. Thomas Bscher took part in the race in his Maserati 450S. The Jaguar appears to be chassis XKD551 which wasn't raced in period.