Funding Appeal: Help Keep Sites Alive Ahead of Server Update!

Welcome! We're tracking 144 Jaguar C-Type, D-Type & Lightweight E-Type cars, with 2,973 photos! (Learn More)
coventryracers.com > cars > detail

XKD523

Browse similar cars:

< XKD522 XKD524 >
    
  D-Type Black
 Open Two Seater 
 Right Hand Drive 
   
 XKD523 
 E2031-9 
 H2023 
 GBD131 
  
 
 1956 British Racing Green
 2025 
 Rest: Concours 
  
  
  
United KingdomUnited Kingdom
 

United KingdomVSV754

Jaguar C-Type, D-Type & Lightweight E-Type photo

13 more photos below

Record Creation: Entered on 12 March 2025.

Database Updates: Show dataplate edits

 

Car History

Supplied to Jaguar Car New York; sold to Roberts Harrison; sold shortly after to Walter Huggler (Pennsylvania); used for several club events; reputed to be have been driven by George Constantine; V8 Buick engine fitted by Joe Grimaldi & chassis cut to allow engine to be fitted; sold to Jeff Millstein who traced and acquired original engine or Lister engine fitted; 1970 sold to Vintage Car Store (Nyack, New York); new frame & tail section purchased from works (may have been bought for XKD 536); car passed to Ali Lugo; sold to Herb Wetson; 1973 advertised by Wetson in Autosport; major componenis now used in two cars.


One car rebuilt with new Jaguar frame, original tub, bonnet, suspension, rear axle, tail section, rear frame piece & many other original parts; sold to Ron Finger; 1985 sold to Nick Soprano (New York); sold to George Gillette (Nashville); rebuilt by John Pearson; 1995 sold to Bud Lyon (USA).


Wetson sold to Bob Wood (UK) the intact chassis frame together with a tail & the incomplete XKD 560; XKD 523 original frame later passed, via Stephen Curtis, to Lynx; sold to Brian Angliss; sold to Bill Lake; sold, via Lynx, to UK resident; car reconstructed by Lynx around this original frame & other original specification parts; registered VSV 754; owner wishes to remain anonymous.

Photos of XKD523

Click slide for larger image. This car has 14 photos. (Dates are when image was uploaded.)

Exterior Photos (3)

Uploaded March 2025:

2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom

Uploaded August 2015:

2015-08-16
Photo--click to zoom

Uploaded December 2008:

2008-12-16
Photo--click to zoom


Action Photos (9)

Uploaded March 2025:

2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom
2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom


Details Photos: Exterior (1)

Uploaded March 2025:

2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom


Detail Photos: Other (1)

Uploaded March 2025:

2025-03-12
Photo--click to zoom


Comments

We now require an email address to leave a comment. Your IP will be recorded in an effort to reduce spam. (Report problem posts here.)

2008-10-25 00:37:02 | Lofty writes:

Registered VSV 754

2009-04-14 17:56:21 | pauls writes:

According to "Jaguar D Type & XKSS" by Graham Robson car was dispatched Nov. 22, 1955. Exported to USA.

2019-12-02 05:34:09 | Daniel writes:

Original Service Manual for sale on Hemmings :

www.hemmings.com/parts/item/17877.html

Seller's description :

Original service manual for Jaguar XKD 523. This manual is from my father's estate. My father owned and raced the car during the late 50's. I also have a number of pictures of the car during that era, I will make copies and include with the manual. I wll certify the manual belonged to 523.

Condition: Used

Offered By: Huggler1 (Private Seller )

Listed: September 16, 2019

Location: Manhattan, New York

2025-03-12 14:46:40 | pauls writes:

Car listed as sold at:

www.fiskens.com/cars-previously-sold/1955-jaguar-d-type-short-nose/13796

Seller's description:

Customer D-type with U.S. privateer race history 

Special 3.8L wide-angle "5-series" Cunningham engine

Important restoration by CKL with full report 

Appearances at Goodwood and Salon Prive

Current FIA HTP papers valid though 2033 

An excellent short-nose D-Type, the subject of fascinating and well-documented restoration works by marque experts CKL, poised for a fresh return to events after sixteen years in a discreet private collection.

XKD 523 was dispatched from Coventry on 22 November 1955, exported to the United States and distributed through Max Hoffman of New York. Initially retailed by Jack Pry Limited to Roberts Harrison for $7,950, she was shortly thereafter resold to Walter Huggler of St. Davids, Pennsylvania, beginning her U.S. privateer history with a win in her debut race at the Convair Field of Allentown, Pennsylvania, in August 1956.

Also racing at Watkins Glen and Harewood Acres, she was entered with Huggler in the glamourous Governor’s Trophy at Nassau in 1956, alongside the likes of Alfonso de Portago, Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, and Stirling Moss – a colour photograph survives showing XKD 523 in race number 96 with Moss in his Maserati 300S.

According to a letter on file, next owner Joe Grimaldi acquired XKD 523 from the garage of works Cunningham racer John Fitch, with the engine apart after an act of sabotage at Nassau. A drag racer before he turned 21, Grimaldi recounts further adventures in U.S. club racing at Bridgehampton, Lime Rock, Meadowvale and Watkins Glen, among famous personalities like Briggs Cunningham, Alfred Momo, Augie Pabst, and again John Fitch, who did some laps in the recommissioned D at Lime Rock.

After damage to Grimaldi’s race engine in a speed record attempt at Daytona Beach, Grimaldi had a Chevrolet V8 installed, competing occasionally in “regionals” through 1960. After getting married and with “no money at all,” Grimaldi’s racing petered out and XKD 523 was sold to Jeff Millstein in 1965, who worked in advertising at a Madison Avenue firm and apparently enjoyed significant clout with Jaguar. Millstein carried out one of the earliest D-Type restorations anywhere, sourcing new parts from Jaguar itself on favoured terms, according to fascinating documentation on file, including a letter from Jaguar Chairman William Lyons himself. Crucially for understanding her history these works also included a new factory front subframe to replace the original modified to accept the V8, and reinstatement of a Jaguar engine.

On a D-Type, this of course was the distinctive arrow-shaped tubular frame secured to the front and rear bulkheads of the monocoque and mounting the engine and front suspension like an aircraft nacelle – importantly stamped with the chassis number. So while the continuous history and the vast majority of original components remained with the Millstein car, in the 1970s the original front frame stamped XKD 523 was sold away by a later owner, and eventually built up by Lynx into a tool-room copy in the 80s.  While it might have been “Alright in the 70s”, these events were temporary and only set the scene for a heroic reunification, when the mirror image would snap back into one.

In that fascinating endeavour, the present very committed owner acquired both the U.S. XKD 523 and the tool room copy, and in 2008 commissioned CKL to reinstate the original front frame in an otherwise very original D-Type. These works were documented extensively in photographs by CKL, and in an article by author Paul Skilleter, and invite comparison with other highly significant “reunion restorations” such as that of XKSS 701 at CKL, or indeed the 1957 Le Mans winner XKD 606 held by the Louwman Museum. The accompanying CKL report details XKD 523’s pleasing originality and completeness, from major components like the original monocoque and bonnet down to ancillaries like the Marston Excelsior radiator and oil cooler, superb original interior trim from another D, and of course, once again the original frame stamped by the factory with the chassis number XKD 523.

Also highly noteworthy and discussed in the CKL report, the engine is one of a small number of special “5-series” 3.8 litre engines, being the very first 3.8s to be produced, featuring 10:1 high-compression pistons and the wide-angle head, as fitted to the Works cars for Le Mans 1957. Numbered E5003-10, according to CKL this engine was prepared by the works for Sebring in 1957 and is thought to have been fitted to long-nose XKD 506 loaned by Jaguar to Briggs Cunningham for the August 1957 Virginia race meeting. In another Cunningham feature the wide-angle head is also notably machined for twin-plug ignition. With XKD 523 for decades and (as not uncommon) re-blocked in period, the Cunningham connection of this engine is intriguing and desirable, aside from providing an exhilarating boost in performance.

Once again a D-Type of very favourable originality compared to many other examples, XKD 523 has lived relatively discreetly under the current long-term ownership, apart from appearances in 2014 at Salon Privé and at the Goodwood Revival in the Jaguar D-Type high speed demonstration. Under new ownership she would be fresh to the historic and competition scene, and certain to be welcome at all of the best events. Maintained by CKL and with freshly issued HTP papers valid through 2033, she would be suitable for historic competition at Goodwood and other race circuits.

You may leave a comment. (Comments are subject to our site terms.)

Spam prevention question (must be answered):
The father of jokes about warm beer and smoke escaping from wires is Joseph Lucas. Lucas died of typhoid after drinking infected water in Naples in 1902.

What disease did Lucas succumb to?

Your name (optional):

Your email:
Your comment: