The D-type cast
Jaguar’s sportscar successes put Britain on the map. In the early 1950s the D-type scored a Le Mans hat trick before Vanwall ended Britain’s championship F1 wait at Aintree in 1957. Paul Parker speaks to several key players in the D-type’s incredible story
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Taken from Motor Sport, June 2004, Le Mans monster: the Jaguar D-type cast
Those who drove the D-type in period have mixed feelings about the car. And perhaps because he drove it during its development phase — and had met with such success in the C-type — Stirling Moss has the least flattering memories of it.
“The C-type was much nicer to drive than the D, which was a less accurate car. We had lots of problems with the D’s disc brakes: flexing hubs caused pad knock-oft vaporisation and much more. We went up the escape road at Mulsanne as many times as we went round the corner during practice at Le Mans in 1954.