2008-10-17 23:11:33 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2008-10-19 03:43:47 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2008-10-25 00:27:15 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2011-11-09 13:53:20 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2013-09-26 03:06:36 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2013-09-30 01:15:55 | Coventry Racers writes:

The record was updated:

2008-10-15 19:32:03 | pauls writes:

9/08 Replica bearing the XKD 561 data plate offered at:
www.brightwells.com/3rdparty/orphanspress/classiccars/viewdetails.php

Photo of original car taken at Goodwood 8/08 by Philippe Picavet
Registration MWS 303

XKD 561
Engine n° E2036-9
Reg. N° MWS 303
Colour Metallic Blue
Third short-nose Ecurie Ecosse car; delivered spring 1956; Snetterton, Flockhart,1 OA & 2 OA; Goodwood, Flockhart, 1 OA; Oulton Park, Flockhart, 2 OA; Aintree, Titterington, 2 OA. Charterhall, Hughes, 2 OA x 2; Silverstone, Flockhart, 5 OA: Spa, Titterington, 3 OA in class; Goodwood, Lawrence, DNF; Aintree Sanderson, accidented; Rouen, Titterington 7th; Silverstone, Flockhart, 3 OA; Charterhall, Lawrence; vvinter 1956/57 sold to Max Trimble (Walsall, UK); modified at factory with full-width screen; April 1957, raced at Oulton Park & Goodwood; May, Spa, accidented very heavily; November, wreck advertised in Autosport; sold lo BenA/yn Baxter (Birmingham); remains sold to Maurice Charles (Cardiff); rebuilt by owner; sold to Clive Unsworth; reported in poor condition in 1980; still owned by Clive Unsworth (Lancashire, UK).

2009-04-14 18:40:06 | pauls writes:

According to "Jaguar D Type & XKSS" by Graham Robson car was dispatched Feb. 28, 1956.

2011-08-20 06:40:35 | Darren writes:

My dad had the fortune of riding as a passenger many times in this very D Type and knew the owner, a Mr Clive Unsworth of Wigan, well in the 1960s. I don't think the car was ever raced at that time he had it, and is reported to have had no race markings on the body. Clive died in the late 90s and not much is known of what happened to the car, although it is believed it was still held in his house garage. My dad had some cinefilm took of it riding as a passenger in the 60s but the film no longer exists - was sadly destroyed in a shed fire, though some black & white photos of the car exist from the 60s.

2013-12-05 00:09:21 | pauls writes:

Car was at auction 12/13
www.bonhams.com/auctions/20934/lot/7/

Auction description:
Lot 7
1956 Jaguar D-Type 'Shortnose' Sports-Racing Two-Seater
Sold for £2,577,500 (US$ 4,220,889) inc. premium
The Ex-Ron Flockhart, Ninian Sanderson, Jock Lawrence
1956 Jaguar D-Type 'Shortnose' Sports-Racing Two-Seater
Registration no. MWS 303
Chassis no. XKD 561
Engine no. Two units supplied - see text

Sir William Lyons of the Jaguar Car Company aimed his sleekly curvaceous, finely streamlined D-Types squarely at winning the world's most prestigious single motor race – the Le Mans 24-Hours – and from 1955-1957 the cars scored an historic hat-trick of victories there. And while it had been a factory 'Longnose' D-Type which won for the first time in 1955, it was subsequently the Ecurie Ecosse 'Shortnose' and 'Longnose' variants which achieved endurance racing's highest honour by winning the 24-Hour races of both 1956 and 1957. So while three of Jaguar's 1950s total of five Le Mans 24-Hour race wins were achieved by D-Types, two of those three were achieved by D-Types owned and run by the Scottish team, and campaigned in their illustrious Flag Metallic Blue livery.

The Ecurie Ecosse team campaigned six D-Type cars, 1955-57. They were chassis serials 'XKD 501', '502', '504', '561', 603' and '606'. Here we are delighted to offer 'Shortnose' serial '561' – road registration 'MWS 303' – which is in many respects the least used and one of the most gorgeous of the charismatic Scottish team's Jaguar D-Types...

It was in May, 1955, that David Murray took delivery of Ecurie Ecosse's first two Jaguar D-Types – serials 'XKD 501' and '502'. The cars were assigned to the Merchiston Mews team just in time to appear in the BRDC 'Daily Express' Trophy meeting at Silverstone. Unfortunately, Jimmy Stewart promptly crashed '501' there but Desmond Titterington – the Ulsterman being regarded at the time as an honorary Scot – finished sixth in 'XKD 502'. The season that followed was hectic, with the Ecosse team contesting no fewer than 20 races both at home and abroad, of which they won six.

The magnificently well-presented 'Shortnose' D-Type now offered here became the Ecurie Ecosse team's third, last, and latest 'Shortnose' D-Type, delivered brand-new from the Coventry factory in March 1956, and registered 'MWS 303'.

The car was then used quite sparingly by David Murray's team during that 1956 season, being raced in only twelve meetings, at Snetterton, Goodwood, Oulton Park, Aintree and Charterhall, Silverstone, Spa, Goodwood, Aintree and Rouen-les-Essarts. Driven by Ron Flockhart, Desmond Titterington, Jock Lawrence and Peter Hughes the car achieved two first places and five seconds.

Overall 'XKD 561's Ecurie Ecosse appearances that year were
as follows:

March 25, 1956 – Snetterton – Ron Flockhart – two races, 1st and 2nd
April 2, 1956 – Goodwood – Ron Flockhart – 1st
April 14, 1956 – Oulton Park – Ron Flockhart – Heat and Final, 2nd and 7th
April 21, 1956 – Aintree – Desmond Titterington – 2nd
April 29, 1956 – Charterhall - Peter Hughes – two 2nd places
May 5, 1956 – Silverstone – Ron Flockhart – 5th
May 13, 1956 – Spa-Francorchamps – Desmond Titterington – Rtd
May 21, 1956 – Goodwood – Jock Lawrence – Rtd
June 23, 1956 – Aintree – Ninian Sanderson – Rtd
July 8, 1956 – Rouen-les-Essarts – Desmond Titterington – 7th
July 14, 1956 – Silverstone – Ron Flockhart – 3rd
September 3, 1956 – Charterhall – Jock Lawrence – not known

Ron Flockhart's exploits in the new car at Snetterton that Easter Saturday in March were described as follows in 'Autosport' magazine. (While the D-Type engined HWM of George) "...Abecassis made a beautiful start....Flockhart was after him like a greyhound chasing an electric hare. The Abecassis-Flockhart duel was one of drum brakes versus disc. The tail lights of the HWM flashed on first at each corner. The Jaguar closed up, and eventually, just halfway through the race, the disc brakes won. Flockhart took the lead and kept it, though not by very much. That it was Flockhart's day (his first for Ecurie Ecosse and first in a D-Type incidentally) was borne out by the last race, a 10-lap handicap for everyone. (While) Peter Gammon drove his Cooper-Climax so well and so fast that with his handicap no one had a chance of getting near him,...Flockhart certainly tried all he knew. From ninth place on the first lap, the Scotsman climbed to third on the sixth, 35secs behind Gammon, and second on the eighth, catching the leader at a pace of 3secs per lap. At the end Flockhart was 18secs behind and still making up distance...".

On Easter Monday, Ron Flockhart's victory at the Goodwood International came in the programme-closing handicap event – while his second place at Oulton Park came in heat 3 of the British Empire Trophy race. In the Final he placed seventh. At Aintree Desmond Titterington in '561' now offered here was beaten only by Roy Salvadori in the works-entered Aston Martin DB3S. Des Titterington's third place in the sports car race supporting the British GP at Silverstone on July 14 saw '561' bettered only by Salvadori's works Aston (again) and by the outright winner, Stirling Moss in the factory Maserati 300S. While a private customer team Ecurie Ecosse and its D-Type Jaguars really did compete with The Big Boys...

Early in 1957 David Murray sold 'XKD 561' to young would-be owner-driver Max Trimble from Walsall. In his early outings in the car at Aintree and Goodwood Trimble showed considerable promise while not yet being fully familiar with it. But during practice for the Spa Grand Prix in Belgium in early May,1957, Max Trimble crashed heavily, badly damaging the ex-Ecosse Jaguar.

It was sold, unrepaired but in its entirety, to Welsh garagist and Jaguar specialist Maurice Charles who rebuilt it to running order over an extended period, re-prepared it for racing and who eventually returned it to racing during the 1959 season, as in the sports car race supporting the British Grand Prix at Aintree, finishing a respectable eighth amongst much lighter, faster Cooper Monaco, Lister-Jaguar and Lotus 15 opposition. In the subsequent Kentish '100' race meeting at Brands Hatch, Maurice Charles then drove '561' home seventh ahead of Mike Anthony's powerful Lister-Chevrolet and Michael Salmon's sister D-Type.

Maurice Charles raced the car occasionally during 1960, and in the BRDC May Silverstone International he finished seventh, splitting the sister D-Types of Ron Flockhart – driving nothing less than Ecurie Ecosse's veteran 1957 Le Mans-winning 'Longnose' – 'XKD 606' - and Michael Salmon again in a 'Shortnose' entered by the Gerrards Cross Motor Company.

Maurice Charles eventually sold the car now offered here to a Lancastrian enthusiast named Clive Unsworth, a very private single gentleman who used it as a road car for the next eight years or so, before preserving it in storage for the following 26 long years...

It eventually emerged from this long hibernation as one of the most authentic Jaguar D-Type Jaguars to have survived from period competition use. Upon Mr Unsworth's death the car was offered for sale from his estate. Dick Skipworth was interested as a potential buyer but passed instead to Dr Julio Palmas who in 1994 commissioned leading British Jaguar specialist John Pearson to conduct a full restoration of the car.

In 2002 when 'XKD 561' was again offered for sale, Dick Skipworth succeeded in acquiring it for his by then well-established Ecurie Ecosse Collection.

The car has since appeared in Historic racing in numerous events, up to and including the Goodwood Revival Meeting – in which it has been driven by both Dick Skipworth himself and Graeme Dodd – and in the 2008 Le Mans Classic when it was co-driven by Mr Skipworth and his son Steve. The car has been qualified on pole position at Oulton Park in the hands of Barrie Williams and it is widely recognized as being a thoroughly competitive Historic racing 'Shortnose' D-Type.

As offered here the car is fitted with a correct spec. D-Type six-cylinder racing engine fully prepared and tuned by Sigma Engineering, while its 1959-60 period ex-Maurice Charles engine – serial number 'E2010-9' - is also included with this Lot, it was rebuilt by Pearsons during the D-Type's restoration, seen little use since rebuild. We understand that this second engine is in very good condition and provides notably flexible response for road use. A high first gear is currently featured in the close-ratio four-speed gearbox. Wider rear hubs are fitted to ensure adequate clearance between the sidewalls of available racing tyres and the live rear axle's locating trailing arms. The car's fuel system was modified with high-capacity Fassett pumps but the original-equipment SU pumps have recently been refitted. Spares offered with this lot in addition to the second engine are two spare Dunlop wheels and a detachable passenger side windscreen which is a boon for use in such an event as the Mille Miglia Retro or any of the many road rallies and tours now available for the enjoyment of any new owner's companion or navigator...

After difficulties – including major collisions - had beset the works team Jaguar 'Longnose' D-Types at Le Mans, 1956, it was left to Ecurie Ecosse's 'Shortnose' D-Types to salvage Coventry's pride there.

The Scottish team's 'XKD 501' with drivers Ron Flockhart/Ninian Sanderon responded by winning the world's most prestigious endurance race, for Jaguar, country, and Queen. Even better then followed in 1957 when the Ecosse 'Longnose' D-Types finished first and second, with other private entry D-Types following them home third, fourth and sixth. The Ecurie Ecosse D-Types thus became inextricably interwoven into the wider Jaguar legend. And right here is your chance to buy into this legend, and to acquire this mouth-wateringly well-presented, long-dormant, wonderfully well-restored and race proven Ecurie Ecosse D-Type Jaguar...

2013-12-29 11:38:44 | Peter Crespin writes:

Some mix-ups in the chronology perhaps. In the Jan/Feb 1997 issue of Jaguar World, three years after the supposed Pearson refurb, there appeared a fully photographed first-hand and present tense report by Lola expert John Starkey, of the car being unearthed from the Unsworth garage.

Unsworth is described as having recently passed away and his mother as having bought the car from Muaurice Charles on May 11th 1959 for 1250 GBP with 900GBP allowed as part exchange for Unsworth's C-Type. Starkey describes seeing the car first in the late 1980s and talking to Unsworth about it, so the photos may date from that time but he definitely refers to the car in 1997 as having been recently rediscovered.

2020-02-07 02:52:14 | Dave Williams writes:

I tried to put a comment with the photo I uploaded yesterday but it seems that didn't work. I took the photo at the British Empire Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in 1956 where the car was driven by Ron Flockhart.