Today, many of the famed Jaguar D-Type racer’s 71 examples—built between 1954 and 1957—spend their lives cocooned in climate-controlled enclaves, far away from the very racetracks they were designed to be driven on. Not so this 1956 example, with its patinated, pale-yellow body bearing chassis No. XKD 552.
Since it was acquired in 2003 by its current owner, a passionate Florida-based weekend racer, it has been driven aggressively at everything from the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, the Goodwood Revival, the Mille Miglia Storica, the Monterey Historics, the 1,000-mile Colorado Grand, and the tours for Jaguar C-Types and D-Types organized by renowned Arizona-based Jaguar restorer Terry Larson.
This 1956 Jaguar D-Type will be available at the Gooding Christie’s Retromobile New York sale on November 21.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
The car has also been a regular at key concours events, from Amelia Island to the Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. Now, for the first time in this D-Type’s colorful 70-year history, it’s being offered for sale at auction. On November 21, it will headline the inaugural Gooding Christie’s Retromobile New York sale.
“This D-Type has done it all, and is a great candidate to do it again,” Angus Dykman, specialist at Gooding Christie’s, tells Robb Report. “Unlike so many cars like this that sit in collections, it has been campaigned successfully at many of the world’s greatest motoring events.”
According to Dykman’s research, chassis No. XKD 552 came off Jaguar’s Browns Lane assembly line in mid-1956, just weeks after Jaguar’s second of three victories with its new D-Type in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Back then, it was painted in a somber shade of Battleship Grey and, surprisingly, built without a customer order.
This will be the first time in this example’s 70-year history that it is being auctioned.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
At the time, Jaguar was having challenges selling its new open-topped, aluminum-bodied race car, and this one spent its early days being shuffled between British Jaguar dealers in a bid to drum-up sales. By November 1956, it had made its way back to Jaguar headquarters and was listed among the company’s stock of unsold D-Types.
On May 6, 1957, the car finally found a buyer and was shipped to Lowis and Hodgkiss, Jaguar’s distributor in Nairobi, Kenya. From there it was delivered to its first owner, South African racer John Manussis. Apparently, Manussis had previously owned an ex-works Jaguar C-Type and had campaigned it throughout Europe. Now, with the keys to chassis No. XKD 522, he raced the car locally at the then-newly opened Nakuru Park track in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
In 1957, the car was delivered to its first owner, South African racer John Manussis.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
A year later, he’d sold the D-Type to fellow South African racer Nolis Samaras, who immediately had the car repainted in bright red with a broad white stripe. Samaras also campaigned the vehicle regularly at Nakuru Park. Then, in 1963, a new buyer was found in Canada. Montreal-based Roger Lucas, a jewelry designer, had the D-Type repainted in gold. There are photos, included with the auction lot, of him parading the Jaguar through the streets of Montreal, or with it parked outside his store, flanked by bodyguards.
Two years later, chassis No. XKD 522 had been passed on to acclaimed Canadian photojournalist Don Newlands. Come 1989, the vehicle had been shipped to Switzerland, where it became part of the Eric Traber collection. It was Traber who commissioned D-Type specialist Terry Larson to do a complete restoration at his Arizona workshop. There, Larson changed the color to pale yellow, at Traber’s request, and added a trademark D-Type fin behind the driver. Larson also removed the original 3.4-liter inline-six XK engine for safe keeping, and replaced it with a rebuilt example.
Although D-Type specialist Terry Larson replaced the original 3.4-liter inline-six with a rebuilt one, the car comes with its matching-numbers engine.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
After its restoration, this racer has embarked on a new era of competition, with subsequent owners returning the car to circuits around the world. It began in 1991, when Bruce Lustman, a collector and racer of classic automobiles on the east coast, acquired the car, followed in 1997 by Ned Spieker, of Atherton, Calif., who entered it in the Mille Miglia Storica and the Monterey Historics.
Buying the car in 2003, the current steward followed in their footsteps, entering the D-Type in a multitude of key driving events, many with his son as co-driver. In 2014. it took part in the prestigious Lavant Cup race for D-Types during that year’s Goodwood Revival.
“This D-Type has done it all, and is a great candidate to do it again,” says Angus Dykman, specialist at Gooding Christie’s.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
For its Retromobile New York auction in November, Gooding Christie’s has a price estimate of between $6 million and $7 million for this example. That’s considerably less than the $21.78 million fetched by the Le Mans–winning 1955 D-Type (chassis No. XKD 501) that sold at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in 2016.
“It’s an approachable estimate for an example of this caliber, says Dykman. “It is rare to find a D-Type that has both a rich, engaging history and retains so many original components, exhibiting a high level of overall purity.”
Click here for more pictures of this 1956 Jaguar D-Type.
The 1956 Jaguar D-Type being offered through Gooding Christie’s on November 21.
Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding Christie’s
