Actual LeMans Winner 1956
Image by fossiled
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most prestigious and legendary endurance race, starts at four o’clock in the afternoon and it’s raining—an inauspicious start to an already exceptionally dangerous motor race. This won’t be an easy race, and the men on the starting grid, about to sprint across the front stretch and jump into their cars, know it. After all, 49 cars will start the race and only 14 will finish. One man will lose his life.
One of the most stunningly beautiful cars on the grid in 1956 was the formidable Jaguar D-Type, swathed in traditional Scottish blue with a white cross, the traditional colors of the Ecurie Ecosse outfit. Standing across the track is Ron Flockhart, one of its two drivers, an Edinburgh-born driver who might not have known it, but he was on his way to consecutive Le Mans wins. Quite the adventurer, several years, later, he would make two attempts at breaking the flight record from Sydney, Australia, to London, England, in a war-era P51 Mustang. The 3 factory long nosed D Types and troubles with 2 DNF (did not finish) and the 3rd having major problems that cost a great deal of time, leaving the first D Type to have been sold new to a private team (the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse) to carry the flag. And they waved that flag in France as the eventual over all Winner!…,in a year old prior version car driven by a private team, and they beat all the pro-teams and their legendary cars.
It is the only remaining Jag from the 5 winning years in the 50s, that is intact with original chassis, engine and body, which undoubtedly contributed to it’s sale in 2016 for………….drum roll ………………….$ 21,780,000 !!!
Sleek and gorgeous with the BEST reverences!!
AS ALWAYS….COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!
