Unveiling Victory: The Birth of Jaguar's Le Mans Sensation
Spurred on by the boost in car sales that winning Le Mans brought, Jaguar leapt into the 1950s fray, taking on an increasingly competitive field and winning again and again with its futuristic C-types and D-types
Jaguar’s breakthrough: the XK120 of Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt crosses the finish line to record the brand’s first Le Mans win in 1953
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Taken from Motor Sport Online June 2023
As had Enzo Ferrari, Jaguar boss Williams Lyons took a bit of persuading about the value of the Le Mans 24 Hours. He was, however, faster on the uptake.
Ferrari was a racer at heart. The selling of a smattering of thoroughbred sports cars in America on the back of success in the only European race with cachet Stateside was a distraction initially. Perhaps he didn’t want to admit that Luigi Chinetti – self-appointed US agent and winner of arguably Ferrari’s most important victory (Le Mans in 1949) in terms of its long-term future – had been right. When eventually he realised that he could help fund his beloved grand prix team in this fashion, he changed his tune: Le Mans became Ferrari’s most important race of the (first half of) the year.