Jaguar now had a fine reputation, a superb large sedan and a very fine sports
car, but it needed a high volume smaller car. In 1955, the company invested
millions on designing and developing the Jaguar 2.4 to fill the gap.
After an exploratory trip to Le Mans in 1950, it was realized that Jaguar had
the makings of a successful competition car. Consequently Lyons was persuaded
that a car should be produced solely with racing in mind. Hence was born the
XK120C or, as the car is more generally known, the C-Type.
Three C-Types were finished just in time for Le Mans in 1951. The Jaguars were
an unknown quantity, yet the C-Type driven by Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead
recorded a remarkable victory on its racing debut.
Meanwhile Jaguar engineers had been working in conjunction with Dunlop on a new
development: the disc brake.
This was to be Jaguar´s secret weapon upon their return to Le Mans in 1953. With
their fade-free brakes the C-Types could decelerate at the end of the three and
a half mile Mulsanne Straight from speeds of around 150 mph with complete
confidence, and they could leave their braking far later than their rivals. The
result was a complete walkover, the Jaguars finishing first, second and fourth.
If further proof were needed that Jaguar was now a world force and the XK engine
a world beater, then the emphatic triumph of ´53, against one of the strongest
fields any race had ever seen, provided it. By the end of the decade, Jaguar
C-Types, and the D-Types that followed, had achieved a total of five victories
at Le Mans.
By the 1960s, Jaguar needed to make another quantum leap forward. The E-Type,
announced in 1961, was just that. Like the XK120 in 1948, it was an absolute
sensation, perfectly capturing the spirit of its time. A true automotive icon,
and arguably the most famous sports car of all time, some 70,000 Jaguar E-Types
were built over the next 13 years—with around 60% being shipped to the United
States.
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