The Jaguar C-Type (officially called the Jaguar XK120-C) is a
racing sports car built by
Jaguar and sold from 1951 to 1953. The "C" stands for "competition".
The car combined the running gear of the contemporary, road-proven
XK120, with a lightweight tubular frame designed by Jaguar Chief Engineer William Heynes, and an aerodynamic aluminium body, jointly developed by
William Heynes, R J (Bob) Knight and later
Malcolm Sayer
Malcolm Sayer (21 May 1916 – 22 April 1970) was an aircraft engineer during wartime and later automotive aerodynamist. His most notable aerodynamic work being responsible for the engineering body development of the E-Type Jaguar and early st ...
. A total of 53 C-Types were built, 43 of which were sold to private owners, mainly in the US.
[
]
Specification
The road-going XK120’s 3.4-litre twin-cam
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
, straight-6 engine produced between 160 and . The C-Type version was originally tuned to around . The early C-Types were fitted with SU carburettor
SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century.
The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburetto ...
s and drum brakes. Later C-Types, produced from mid 1953, were more powerful, using triple twin-choke Weber carburettors and high-lift camshafts. They were also lighter, and braking performance was improved by using disc brakes on all four wheels. The lightweight, multi-tubular, triangulated frame was designed by Heynes. Heynes, Knight and Sayer together developed the aerodynamic body. Made of aluminium in the barchetta style, it was devoid of road-going items such as carpets, weather equipment and exterior door handles. According to the Jaguar Heritage Registry, the cars were produced between May 1952, starting with XKC001, and ending in August 1953 with XK054. The original alloy body was marked with the prefix K (e.g. K1037).
Racing
The C-Type was successful in racing, most notably at the Le Mans 24 hours race, which it won twice.
In 1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
, the car won at its first attempt. The factory entered three, whose driver pairings were Stirling Moss and Jack Fairman
Jack Fairman (15 March 1913 – 7 February 2002) was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 13 Formula One Grands Prix, making his debut on 18 July 1953. He scored a total of five championship points, all of which came in ...
, Leslie Johnson and triple Mille Miglia
The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...
winner Clemente Biondetti
Clemente Biondetti (18 October 1898 – 24 February 1955) was an Italian auto racing driver. Born into a working-class family, Biondetti raced motorcycles before turning to automobiles where he had greater success.
Biography
Born in Buddusò, S ...
, and the eventual winners, Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead. The Walker-Whitehead car was the only factory entry to finish, the other two retiring with lack of oil pressure. A privately entered XK120, owned by Robert Lawrie, co-driven by Ivan Waller, also completed the race, finishing 11th.
In 1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
, Jaguar, worried by a report about the speed of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (chassis code W 198) is a two-seat sports car which was produced by Mercedes-Benz as a gullwinged coupe (1954–1957) and roadster (1957–1963).Werner Oswald: ''Mercedes-Benz Personenwagen 1945–1985''. Motorbuch Ve ...
s that would run at Le Mans, modified the C-Type’s aerodynamics to increase the top speed. However, the consequent rearrangement of the cooling system made the cars vulnerable to overheating, and all three retired from the race. The Peter Whitehead- Ian Stewart and Tony Rolt
Major Anthony Peter Roylance Rolt, MC & Bar, (16 October 1918 – 6 February 2008) was a British racing driver, soldier and engineer. A war hero, Rolt maintained a long connection with the sport, albeit behind the scenes. The Ferguson 4WD pr ...
/ Duncan Hamilton cars blew head gaskets, and the Stirling Moss-Peter Walker car, the only one not overheating having had a full-sized radiator hurriedly fitted, lost oil pressure after a mechanical breakage. Testing by Norman Dewis
Norman Dewis (3 August 1920 – 8 June 2019) was a British car test driver, who was the test driver for Jaguar Cars from 1952 to 1985. His son Andrew Dewis is also a racing driver
Car development
Dewis participated in the development of the f ...
at MIRA
Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–400 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus.
ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a vari ...
after the race proved that the overheating was caused more by the revisions to the cooling system than by the altered aerodynamics: the water pump pulley was undersized, so it was spinning too fast and causing cavitation; also the header tank was in front of the passenger-side bulkhead, far from the radiator, and the tubing diameter was too small at 7/8 inch. With the pump pulley enlarged, and the tubing increased to 1 1/4 inch, the problem was eliminated. The main drawback of the new body shape was that it reduced downforce on the tail to the extent that it caused lift and directional instability at speeds over on the Mulsanne Straight. These cars had chassis numbers XKC 001, 002 and 011. The first two were dismantled at the factory, and the third survives in normal C-type form.
In 1953
Events
January
* January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
* January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.
* January 14
** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...
, C-Types won again, and also placed second and fourth. This time the body was in thinner, lighter aluminium and the original twin H8 sand cast SU carburettors were replaced by three DCO3 40mm Webers, which helped boost power to . Philip Porter mentions additional changes:
Further weight was saved by using a rubber bag fuel tank ... lighter electrical equipment and thinner gauge steel for some of the chassis tubes ... e most significant change to the cars were the triple Weber carburetors and witch to
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
disc brakes.
Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt won the race at – the first time Le Mans had been won at an average of over .[
Disc brakes were novel in 1953, and Jaguar's win, partly due to their superiority, set off a scramble to include discs in production cars.
1954, the C-Type's final year at Le Mans, saw a fourth place by the ]Ecurie Francorchamps
Ecurie Francorchamps was a Belgian motor racing team. They are principally known for running privateer cars in Formula One and sports car racing during the 1950s and 1970s. The team was founded by racing driver Jacques Swaters. Between 1952 and 19 ...
entry driven by Roger Laurent and Jacques Swaters
Jacques Swaters (30 October 1926 – 10 December 2010) was a racing driver from Belgium and former team owner of Ecurie Francorchamps and Ecurie Nationale Belge.
Racing career
Swaters made his debut in the 24 Hours of Spa in an MG co-drive ...
.[
]
Values
When new, the car sold for about $6,000, approximately twice the price of an XK120. In an article in the 11 June 2003 issue of '' Autocar'' magazine ("Slick Cat Jaguar", p. 70) the value of a "genuine, healthy" C-Type is estimated as £400,000, and the value of the 1953 Le Mans winner is about £2 million; replicas are available from a variety of sources from £40,000. A C-Type once owned and raced by Phil Hill sold at an American auction in August 2009 for $2,530,000 and another C-type was sold at the Pebble Beach auction in 2012 for $3,725,000, Recently an unrestored C-Type that raced at Le Mans has sold for £5,715,580, during the Grand Prix Historique race meeting in Monaco. In August 2015, an ex-Ecurie Ecosse Lightweight C-type, chassis XKC052 and the second of only three works lightweights, driven by Peter Whitehead and Ian Stewart to fourth at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours, fetched $13.2 million (£8.4 million) at auction in California.
Notes
References
*
External links
Coventry Racers
– Pages for each of the 54 C-Types, including photos and short histories for many.
{{Jaguar
C-type
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Sports racing cars
24 Hours of Le Mans race cars
Le Mans winning cars
Cars introduced in 1951