TAKEN FROM
MOTOR SPORT, JUNE 2004
Ninian Sanderson climbs aboard the Le Mans-winning D-type he shared with Ron Flockhart. This 1956 win showed the D-type was just as formidable in customers’ hands
Down the decades numerous cars have claimed to draw inspiration from the aerospace industry, but few have done so with the conspicuous success of Jaguar’s D-type. In the wider car industry of the 1950s, aeroplane influences would become associated with silly styling extravagances on American road cars whereas – for all its undeniable beauty – Jaguar’s racing successor to the C-type was designed by Malcolm Sayer on strictly Bauhaus principles. Form followed function – but it so happened that the form determined by aerodynamic principles turned out to be ravishing to the eye.