1953 Hamilton orders the double brandies (allegedly)

It’s one of the great stories, and told first hand, too. In Duncan Hamilton’s autobiography he describes how, having been slung out of the race in practice, he and his Jaguar team-mate Tony Rolt indulged in “a night of steady imbibing” during which “Tony and I never saw our bedroom.” He said they were found in something of a state at 10am on Saturday morning by William Lyons who told them they were back in the race. By 2pm, two hours before the flag fell and after several black coffees and a Turkish bath, both still felt dreadful. Double brandies were ordered which did the trick, off they toddled and won the race.

As a racing story of derring-do to thrill the heart, it could only have been materially improved by being true, which, sadly, it was not. Yes, they’d been excluded but Jaguar had immediately appealed the decision and the outcome of that still hung in the balance while Duncan and Tony were allegedly getting quietly sozzled. We’re not saying they didn’t have a drink, but an all-night binge with still the possibility of doing a 24-hour race the next day? Really? Sadly the story has continued to obscure what did actually happen to this day – a fine win and the first at Le Mans by a car using disc brakes.

1993 Coulthard loses GT win on only LM appearance

Forty years after Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt’s alleged booze-fuelled charge to a Jaguar victory at Le Mans, a pre-Formula 1 David Coulthard, David Brabham and John Nielsen ‘won’ the inaugural GT class in the TWR-run XJ220C – and were then disqualified for Tom Walkinshaw’s refusal to fit a catalytic converter. A painful experience? It was for Brabham. In qualifying, the fuel bag tank had to be replaced, there were gearbox issues and the car was dropped on Brabham’s foot during a pitstop. Ouch.

1990 Brundle switches cars and wins

It looked like another Le Mans win had evaded Martin Brundle when his Jaguar XJR-12LM was delayed first by high water temperatures and then on Sunday morning by pump failure. But Tom Walkinshaw had a plan. He’d deliberately kept Eliseo Salazar out of the sister car, letting John Nielsen and a dehydrated Price Cobb rotate until he parachuted Brundle in unannounced to help nurse failing brakes and a defective fourth gear to land Jaguar its second Le Mans win of the Group C era.

1955 The darkest hour

Any opus must have shade as well as light. We usually choose to focus on moments of uplifting sporting drama and great escapes. But the casualties of Le Mans should never be forgotten.

Just before 6.30pm, Mike Hawthorn’s Jaguar D-type was in a battle with Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes 300 SLR. Hawthorn braked heavily to pit forcing Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey to swerve into the path of the Mercedes driven by Pierre Levegh. The 300 SLR was launched into a spectator enclosure, resulting in catastrophic loss of life: more than 80 spectators and the driver, plus scores of injured. Mercedes chose to withdraw (eventually from the sport), Jaguar didn’t – and Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb recorded the most hollow of victories.

“What I have always said is that Mike Hawthorn caused the accident, but he did not cause the tragedy,” said Levegh’s team-mate John Fitch. “The tragedy was caused by the outdated nature of the track – a start/finish straight which was actually a curve, and ridiculously narrow, so that if anything bad happened in front of the pits it was bound to project bits into the crowd.”

The very future of motor sport was under question for a while. Yet most racing folk carried on regardless. We cannot – and should not – judge.

1984 Jaguar returns to Le Mans

About time. Jaguar returned to its spiritual sporting home 27 years after its last victory, but it would not be a happy reunion. The US-based Group 44 team brought its XJR-5s to La Sarthe, but the regular IMSA race winner struggled to stretch its legs at Le Mans – both entries failed to finish. It was a sobering return. But amid XJ-S glory in the European Touring Car Championship, a new partnership with TWR was soon brewing that would result in the potent XJR-6. Tom Walkinshaw was nearly ready to pounce.

1987 Percy survives Jaguar XJR-8 ‘plane crash’

He wasn’t supposed to race. But as reserve driver when John Watson fell ill, Win Percy stepped up – and then took off on the Mulsanne in the wee small hours when the right-rear of his XJR-8 let go. He even had time to think of Jo Gartner, killed on the straight a year earlier, as he looped into the night sky. “The car was twisting in the air like a leaf in the wind,” he recalled. When it stopped, his helmet had rubbed through to the cloth lining – but he didn’t have a bruise on him.

1956 Ecurie Ecosse keeps the Jaguar flame burning

Australian engineer Ron Gaudion was 29 when he returned home having spent four years in the UK, during which he had tended to the victorious D-types of Jaguar’s hat-trick: a works car in 1955 and a brace for Edinburgh privateer team, Ecurie Ecosse.

“Jaguar had a family atmosphere and it was the same at Ecosse,” he says. “Stan Sproat, the other mechanic, and I hit it off. We got on well with DM [team owner David Murray], too. Stan had been there for three years, but it was me who had to ask for our share of the mechanics’ prize. Both years!

“DM was hanging onto every pound. I don’t blame him. It’s an expensive sport and the team was on a shoestring. I wouldn’t be surprised if only [winner] Ron Flockhart got paid [in 1956]. The others drove because it was a nice team with good cars.”

Englishman Ivor Bueb, a winner in 1955, was drafted for 1957, replacing the “a bit wild” Ninian Sanderson alongside Flockhart. “Scots in those days didn’t take kindly to Sassenachs,” says Gaudion. “They took to me because I’m not a Pom. But Ivor fitted right in – perhaps because he never went up to Edinburgh.

“There were no fewer than 10 works-supported Ferraris that year, plus three works Maseratis and a team of Aston Martins. Jaguars finished 1-2-3-4-6. Ours were 1-2. Fantastic.”

Taken from Motor Sport June 2023