Jaguar D-Type
It wasn’t simply one of the greatest racing cars of the 1950s, it’s in with a shout of being the greatest racing car of all-time. Fusing aerospace technology with track know-how, Jaguar created a legend that whitewashed its rivals at Le Mans and moved the sport forwards
Jaguar Heritage
Taken from Motor Sport, June 2004, X-ray spec: Jaguar D-type
Coventry’s endurance racer broke new ground, both in structure and aerodynamic. Keith Howard talks tot the man who developed a legend
Down the decades numerous cars have claimed to draw inspiration from the aerospace industry, but few have done so with the conspicuous success of Jaguar’s D-type. hi the wider car industry of the 1950s, aeroplane influences would become associated with silly styling extravagances on American road cars whereas — for all its undeniable beauty —Jaguar’s racing successor to the C-type was designed by Malcolm Sayer on strictly Bauhaus principles. Form followed function — but it so happened that the form determined by aerodynamic principles turned out to be ravishing to the eye.