Who's Your Daddy? (Jaguar D-Type Photo Essay)

Yesterday's post about Jay Leno's XK-E brought to mind its father, the D-Type race car.  When the
XK-E came out in 1961, its styling was an obvious homage to the D-Type, but I didn't realize until later how similar it was was technically.  Malcolm Sayer designed both cars (and the C-Type, the race car which preceded the D).

William Lyons, who owned and ran Jaguar, was interested in LeMans.  The promotional value of winning the most famous sports car race in the world was obvious.  He was not particularly interested in other races or the World Sports Car Championship, although factory Jags entered other events and private owners raced C-Types and D-Types everywhere.  Jags were not well-suited to tight circuits like the Nurburgring or bumpy courses like the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio.  They performed best on "power circuits" with long straights like Spa, Reims, and LeMans.  Jaguar won the 24 hour race four times in the postwar classic era: 1953 (C-Type) and 1955-1957 (D-Type).

A major factor in the C-Type's 1953 win was Dunlop's perfection of fade-resistant disc brakes, which Jaguar used first in racing.  The C-Type was an otherwise conventional ladder tube-frame car--and a bit long in the tooth by 1953.  It was also clear to Lyons and Sayer that Ferrari (and others) were developing big-engine cars that might overwhelm Jag's 3.4 liter six.

So Sayer designed a new "clean sheet"car: the D-Type.  Aside from its solid rear axle and the iron-block inline six carried over from the C-Type, it went beyond state-of-the art to innovative.  Sayer used a monocoque aluminum center tub, the rigidity of which was enhanced by a partially enclosed cockpit (then permitted by the rules).  To this he bolted two steel semi-space subframes for the engine and the rear axle.  This structure was designed to mate with streamlined front and rear body sections to maximize top speed and stability on LeMans's long Mulsanne Straight.  While it was not light or rigid by later standards, it was comparatively light and very robust for its time.

Here's a good video discussion of the D-Type:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=rN0Ze25mMhU

And here's the photo essay:

Above: beyond state-of-the-art for 1954: innovative.  This rendering is of the later Long Nose D-Type.
Below: a good view of the structure of the aluminum monocoque center section of the chassis.

At LeMans in 1954, the D-Type's 3.4 liter six did not have the beans to stay with Ferrari's 4.5 and 5.0 liter V-12's in
the 375 and 375 Plus.  This car came second, a lap down, driven by Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, who had won
LeMans a year earlier in a C-Type.  This picture was taken at a modern demonstration run.

In 1955, it came right for the D-Type when Mike Hawthorn/Ivor Bueb won LeMans as the dominant Mercedes-Benz
300 SLR's withdrew after the terrible crash that killed over 80 spectators when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes was launched
into a grandstand.  At the time, Jaguar and Hawthorn denied all responsibility for the crash.  But the modern consensus
is that Hawthorn swerved in front of Lance Macklin's Austin Healey to enter the pits, causing Macklin in turn to
swerve into the path of Levegh.  This picture is of Bueb passing the pits in the rain on Sunday morning.

Jaguar withdrew as a factory team after 1956, but supported private teams.  In '56, the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team won
LeMans after the factory cars retired (Ron Flockhart/Ninian Sanderson).  Ecosse repeated with this car in '57, driven
by Ron Flockhart/Ivor Bueb.  Here, Flockhart is seen entering Arnage.  Jaguar built 71 D-Types and 16 XK-SS's
(its road-going adaptation), numbers comparable to the car counts of the later Ford GT 40 and Porsche 917, and far
higher than those of any other racing sports car of the 1950's.

The Jaguar XK-6 engine had a remarkably long life: 1948-1992.  It was important in racing throughout the '50's.  It was
continually developed, first as a 3.4 liter with a Big Valve head, then as a bored-out 3.8 with carburetors and later fuel-
injection.  It ended its run as a bored and stroked 4.2 liter production engine.  This is a 3.8 carb engine in an Ecurie
Ecosse car  in Scottish Blue with carbs and velocity stacks tuned for low-end torque. 

End of the line: the all-aluminum Lightweight E-Type.  It was a success in British racing; less so in international FIA
racing because its 3.8 liter engine fell between the 3.0 and 5.0 liter class sizes.  The E-Type was a sensation when it was
introduced in 1961 because it was, essentially, a D-Type done in steel with the monocoque extended to the rear of the
car to provide a mounting structure for the (new) fully independent rear suspension.  It was thus a stiffer platform than
the D had been.  The Lightweight was simply a E-Type done in aluminum.