I was invited to this press day, hosted by Jaguar XK Club, which took place at Bicester Heritage. I had never yet made it to Bicester Heritage, l yes shocking I know, but life is busy. For those that do not know Bicester Heritage is home to over 40 best-of-breed automotive specialists. The unique location is the UK's only hub for historic motoring excellence.
Here is our walk around two magnificent iconic cars, the Jaguar C-Type & Jaguar D-Type, both in iconic racing green.
The owner of the C-Type was offered £5m for the car recently, and turned it down.
The Jaguar C-Type
Officially called the Jaguar XK 120-C, is a racing sports car built by Jaguar and sold from 1951 to 1953. The "C" stands for "competition". The car combined the running gear of the contemporary, road-proven XK 120, with a lightweight tubular frame designed by Jaguar Chief Engineer William Heynes, and an aerodynamic aluminium body, jointly developed by William Heynes, R J (Bob) Knight and later Malcolm Sayer. A total of 53 C-Types were built, 43 of which were sold to private owners, mainly in the US.
The Jaguar D-Type
A sports racing car that was produced by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1954 and 1957. Designed specifically to win the Le Mans 24-hour race, it shared the straight-6 XK engine and many mechanical components with its C-Type predecessor. Its structure, however, was radically different, with innovative monocoque construction and slippery aerodynamics that integrated aviation technology, including in some examples a distinctive vertical stabilizer.
Engine displacement began at 3.4 litres, was enlarged to 3.8 L in 1957, and reduced to 3.0 L in 1958 when Le Mans rules limited engines for sports racing cars to that maximum. D-Types won Le Mans in 1955, 1956 and 1957. After Jaguar temporarily retired from racing as a factory team, the company offered the remaining unfinished D-Types as street-legal XKSS versions, whose perfunctory road-going equipment made them eligible for production sports car races in America. In 1957 25 of these cars were in various stages of completion when a factory fire destroyed nine of them.
Total production is thought by some to have totaled 71 D-Types, including 18 for factory teams and 53 for privateers (plus an additional 16 D-Types were converted into road-legal XKSS versions). Jaguar is quoted as claiming it built 75 D-Types.
For more content on this magical day spent with the XK Club you can read our full article here: [ Ссылка ]
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