Jaguar C-Type

This car is competing in the BRDC Historic Sportscar Championship race at the Historic Grand Prix Car Association's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

Photographed at McLeans Corner, it's not shown in the programme of the event but it's a 1952 Jaguar C-Type and may have been owned at the time by Dave Lomas. Partly hidden behind the C-Type is the 1952 RGS Atalanta of Barry Wood with the Lola Mk1 of Anthony Galliers-Pratt bringing up the rear.

RGS Atalanta Jaguar

This car competed in the BRDC Historic Sportscar Championship race at the HGPCA's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's Barry Wood's 1952 RGS Atalanta, constructed by Dick Shattock and originally fitted with a Lea Francis engine, but now with a 3,442cc Jaguar XK engine. There's not much information about the RGS Atalanta on the internet, but there's an RGS Atalanta website which says that a book is shortly to be published about Dick Shattock's cars.

On 9 June 2014 I showed photographs of some of the Jaguar-engined cars at a Donington Park meeting, including another of this RGS Atalanta.

Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars

One of the races at the Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004 organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Organisation was the HGPCA Race for Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars.

Here's a group of cars in that race heading down through the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin, Leading the group is Ollie Crosthwaite in a 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail and behind that number 7 is a 1955 Maserati 300S driven by Mark Gillies. Jeremy Agace is driving the white and blue 1956 Maserati 250Si alongside, behind which is another 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail with Marshall Bailey at the wheel. Next comes a 1954 Kurtis 500 driven by Christopher Keen - interestingly, although the programme of the event shows the engine size of all the other cars taking part in the meeting in cubic centimetres, that for the Kurtis as shown in cubic inches, appropriate I suppose for an American car. It was shown as 283ci which I understand equates to some 4637cc. Following the Kurtis is Nick Wigley's 1953 Tojeiro Bristol, then Barry Wood's 1952 RGS Atalanta and Michael Ehrlich's 1953 Kieft Bristol.

Jaguars & Cars with Jaguar Engines

In the 1950s most sports car races would contain a variety of Jaguars, or Jaguar-engined cars and some of these were in evidence at the Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting in May 2004 at Donington Park organised by the British Racing & Sports Car Club. Below are some of the cars which I photographed at that meeting.

This is a 1954 Jaguar XK120 with the 3442cc version of the straight-6 engine. This car was entered and driven in the HGPCA Race for pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars by George Holt.

A 1952 Jaguar C-type which took part in the BRDC Historic Sportscar Championship race, although the car is not shown in the programme. It's car XKC021 and may have been owned at that time by Dave Lomas. The Le Mans 24 hour race was won by Jaguar C-types in 1951 and 1953.

The car in the background is Ben Eastick's 1955 Jaguar D-type long-nose, registration number 207 RW, which also took part in the BRDC Historic Sportscar Championship race, as did the car in the foreground, John Pearson's 1959 Costin-bodied Lister Jaguar. The Costin Lister was designed to be fitted with Chevrolet engines but a few used the Jaguar XK unit. Jaguar D-types won the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1955, 1956 and 1957,

This car, which took part in the 2¼ hour long Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance Race, is a 1954 HWM Jaguar. It was driven in the race by Michael Steele and Julian Bronson.

Another car which took part in the HGPCA Race for Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars, this is the 1952 RGS Atalanta Jaguar owned by Barry Wood.

There was also a Cooper Jaguar at the meeting but I didn't get a photograph of that.