| Jaguars At Le Mans | ||
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(Fri 25 May 07) Two historic Jaguars will revisit Le Mans half a century after their greatest success.
Jaguars was enormously successful in the iconic 24 Hour race during the 1950s. Works C-Types won in 1951 and 1953, while a factory D-Type took victory in 1955. In 1956 another D-Type, this one entered by privateer team Ecurie Ecosse, brought the tally to four. In 1957 Jaguar provided two more D-Types for Ecurie Ecosse to race, and they could not have been more successful. One of them won the race in the hands of Ron Flockhart (who had driven the dominant car in 1956) and Ivor Bueb, with their team-mates Ninian Sanderson and John Lawrence close behind in the sister car. In fact that race was more or less a Jaguar rout. Three more D-Types finished third, fourth and sixth, in the hands of Jean Lucas/Jean-Marie Brussin, Paul Frere/Freddy Rouselle and Mike Hawthorn/Masten Gregory. There was nothing like it again until Jaguar XJR-9LMs finished first and fourth in 1988. The two Ecosse cars are now owned by Evert Louwman and JCB boss Sir Anthony Bamford. They will be returning to Le Mans next month, along with similar cars belonging to Dick Skipworth and the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, and will be driven round the circuit in the Motor Racing Legends cavalcade which takes place just before the start of the 2007 race on June 16. This project is the brainchild of Michael Quinn, grandson of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons. "The 1957 victory for Jaguar was such a landmark at Le Mans that we were determined that the 50th anniversary of it should be properly celebrated," says Quinn. "It was, after all, a major British triumph and a great achievement for a relatively small manufacturer at the time. The Le Mans victories really helped put Jaguar firmly on the world map." Jaguar Gallery Previous: Vauxhall For Hairdressers Next: Seven-Speed Volkswagen DSG |
