Jaguar D-Type 1955
Jaguar D-Type 1955
Production & VIN: XKD 501; Total D-Type production is thought to have included 18 factory team cars, 53 customer cars, and 16 XKSS versions.
Sold for: USD 21.78 million
Auction house: RM Sotheby's
Sale date: August 19, 2016
Seller: Anonymous owner
Buyer: Anonymous buyer
The Jaguar D-Type is a sports racing car produced by Jaguar Cars Ltd. between 1954 and 1957. Although it shares the basic straight-6 XK engine and many of its mechanical components with the C-Type, its aviation industry influenced structure was radically different. Innovative monocoque construction and an aeronautical approach to aerodynamic efficiency brought aviation technology to competition car design.
Engine displacement began at 3.4 litres, was enlarged to 3.8 L in 1957, and reduced to 3.0 L in 1958 when Le Mans rules limited engines for sports racing cars to that maximum. Jaguar D-Types won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955, 1956 and 1957. After Jaguar temporarily retired from racing as a factory team, the company offered the remaining unfinished D-Types as XKSS versions whose extra road-going equipment made them eligible for production sports car races in America. In 1957 25 of these cars were in various stages of completion when a factory fire destroyed nine of them.