1956 Jaguar D-type 'Long Nose' Penultimate D-type 393 RW (XKD 605)

This is the penultimate D-type, built in March 1956 one of twelve “long-nose” cars, six of which were Works cars and six were Customer cars.  Fitted with the latest specification fuel injection engine it was allocated to the Jaguar Works racing team, and was entered for the Reims 12-hour race on 30^th June 1956, which it won, driven by Duncan Hamilton and Ivor Bueb.

In 1956, the 24-hour race at Le Mans was held later than normal, at the end of July, to allow for reconstruction following the disaster in the 1955 race.  Cars were also required to be fitted with a passenger door, a full-width windscreen, and a smaller fuel tank.  At Le Mans, Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb drove XKD 605 with race number 1 (and on trade plates 393 RW) but were kept back by persistent misfiring, eventually traced to a cracked fuel injection pipe.  They finished sixth, completing 280 laps, and set fastest lap, while the winners were Flockhart and Sanderson in an Ecurie Ecosse entered D-type completing 300 laps.  The car was rebuilt after Le Mans and fitted with a five speed gearbox.

On 13 October 1956, Jaguar announced the company’s withdrawal from racing.

On 6 March 1957, the car was dispatched to Jaguar Cars New York, and was supplied as a used car to the Briggs Cunningham team and was painted in their US racing colours, white with blue stripes.  It was fitted with a new works 3.8 litre engine.  In the 12-hour race at Sebring on 23 March 1957, the car was driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb who finished third.

The car stayed in the USA until 1961 and then returned to England.

It was subsequently painted the original British Racing Green colour again, and was lent to Italy’s National Motor Museum, the Museo Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia in Turin, where it remained for almost twenty years before again returning to its place of birth, the Jaguar factory at Browns Lane, Coventry.  One of the most original D-types in preservation, it still has the 1956 Le Mans windscreen, passenger seat and door.

Having originally been driven on the trade plate 393 RW, on 18 April 1996 it was registered with DVLA as 393 RW, which had been issued in Coventry in 1959 to a Ford Anglia.

1956 Jaguar D-type XKD605 ‘Long Nose’ – Race History

Source: Jaguar C-type, D-type & Lightweight E-type Register  – Anglo Danish Publications

Registration Mark: 393 RW

Chassis Number: XKD 605

Owner: The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust

Inventory Number: 51/J.16

Price when new: £3,878 17s 0d

Price: 422 Weeks Average Wage