RESTORING A LEGEND
1953 Le Mans winner - wins again 70 years later
XKC051 - the legendary 1953 Le Mans winning C-Type - was reunited with its original engine, gearbox and other major components during a comprehensive restoration at CKL. It was a huge honour to be tasked with returning the car to it’s original Le Mans-winning state, and the car won 'Second in Class' at Pebble Beach in 2022 and 'First in Class' at Amelia Island last month.
We discovered and preserved some welcome surprises along the way which tell the story of the car’s life. Rebuilding this remarkably original works car also gave a rare insight into the race preparation that the Jaguar Works Department applied to the C-Type at the end of its development - lessons that can still be relevant to today’s historic racers.
XKC051 in the Jaguar pits during the ‘53 Le Mans race - photo credit: Jaguar Heritage
XKC051 was one of three Lightweight C-Types built by Jaguar for the 1953 Le Mans Race, and was driven to victory by Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, wearing the Jaguar registration 774 RW. It was the first car to win with an average speed of over 100 mph, and the first to win with disc brakes. After victory at Le Mans, the car was driven back to Coventry on the public roads, which meant through London, long before the M25 or M1 Motorways existed - what a sight that must have been in 1953.
“It is the only Works Jaguar Le Mans-winner to have survived - the 1951 and 1955 winners were broken up by the factory, and the 1956 and 1957 winners were Ecurie Ecosse team cars, and although works specification, not actually entered by Jaguar.”
Chris Keith-Lucas
When XKC051 came to us, we were tasked by its new owner with putting it back to its most original form and presenting it in its 1953 Le Mans 24 Hour specification. This sounds simple, but the restoration and preservation of racing cars rarely is. The car had been restored twice before, and arrived along with crates of original and reproduction parts. CKL had the task of reuniting the original chassis, body and mechanical components for the first time in many years.
ORIGINAL FORM
A forensic approach reveals the car's history
The first step in the project was to research every component of the car, and it’s history. Chris Keith-Lucas and the team produced a detailed report on the car, and were able to verify that it was remarkably complete and original. Some examples from the report are; the Le Mans scrutineer’s RAC diamond stamp just above the engine block number, and the brake calipers for the new disc brakes stamped “S/N 2” denoting one of the first sets made of this production design, although a rather different prototype set was tested by Stirling Moss at Reims the year before. The approach was forensic and the original finishes were preserved as much as possible.
“This car of course had a very important racing life over a period of many years. '051' is so important in so many ways and we were honoured to carry out such detailed work to one of the most significant car's of the period.”
Mark Hews
After Le Mans in ’53 the car had been sold to Ecurie Ecosse, repainted blue, and registered LSF 420. It had a full season of front line racing with them before moving on to a succession of privateer racers, each chosing his own colour scheme. In 1955 it was returned to Jaguar for some minor repairs and they installed a spare bonnet and took the opportunity to uprate the engine with a new D-Type cylinder head.
When the car came to us it was fitted with a tool room copy of the bonnet, but thanks to fellow specialists Pearsons we were able to use the original 1955 factory replacement in this restoration. CKL carefully fettled the original bodywork - preserving the old aluminium - and refitted the central spot light. The final result is XKC 051 reunited with all of its original components for the first time since the mid-sixties when the original body was removed and the bare chassis subsequently displayed for many years in the Cunningham Museum.
“The [spare] bonnet initially raced without the...air-scoop, but one was made the following year [1956] by Geoff Allison. When this was...fitted it was over Smith's red paint and Allison's white paint. Rather wonderfully, traces of these colours still remain...we have attached the scoop with captive nuts so it can be removed for inspection.”
Chris Keith-Lucas
The car now tells its story through some visual clues. It wears BRG paint and hand painted number 18 race roundels as it did at Le Mans in 1953, the registration LSF 420 which it has had since 1954, and the slightly different bonnet scoop which was installed in 1955. We’ve made that scoop easily removable, revealing the red and white paint of the car’s 1955 and 1956 liveries. It is undeniably the Jaguar Works Team car which won Le Mans in 1953, but we also preserved its originality and racing history - both as an Ecurie Ecosse team car and in privateer hands.
Winner of the Le Mans Class at Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance 2023
Photo credit: Time to Drive Holdings LLC
It felt like a bold step to present the car, not as a facsimile of its 1953 form, but as an original artefact. Fortunately, the judges at Amelia agreed.
Thanks to Time to Drive Holdings LLC for the great photos of the car and their assistance with this article.