Jaguar D-Type XKD 606

In 1957 Jaguar wins the 24-hour Le Mans race with this D-Type XKD 606.

Jaguar dominates Le Mans in the fifties with victories in 1951, 1953, 1955 and 1956, first with C types (the first car with disc brakes to win Le Mans), later with D types. At the end of 1956 Jaguar withdraws from racing because the factory is going to focus on a production car. Yet in 1957 five D types appear on the starting grid through private entries. Private team Ecurie Ecosse runs two outdated factory Ds. The first crew consists of drivers Flockhart and Bueb with this car, XKD 606, the second of Lawrence and Sanderson. Flockhart/Bueb take the lead after just three hours and never let it go. The mostly experimental Ferraris and Maseratis, with drivers such as Moss and Fangio, drop out one by one and the D type of Flockhart and Bueb inexorably drives to victory, no less than nine laps ahead of the number two, the D type of Lawrence/Sanderson. Third, fourth and sixth places go to the other D types. Thus in 1957 XKD 606 completes the hat trick for Jaguar with three consecutive Le Mans victories. The car covers a record distance of 4,397 kilometers at an average speed of 183 km/h, a record that stands for four years. After Le Mans the discarded D type ends up in club racing circles. Eventually, after a crash, the car is split into two parts: the body with rear suspension on the one hand and the subframe with engine on the other. Both components are completed with replica parts, resulting in two so called original cars. The Louwman Museum eventually manages to acquire both cars and, after a lengthy restoration carried out with great sense of history, the original components are reunited. The car is now back in the condition in which it was so successful in 1957.