British luxury manufacturer Jaguar is building 25 units of the D-Type, a car that was the winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours race three times between 1955 and 1957 and that was last built 62 years ago. The very first of these cars that have been lovingly and expensively assembled by Jaguar Classic is an engineering prototype, and making its global debut at the Salon Retromobile show in Paris this week.
Back in 1955, Jaguar had originally planned to build 100 of these D-type models, but only 75 were actually completed. Jaguar Classic is now stepping in and fulfilling the company's original production plan by creating 25 all-new, period-correct versions of the evocative sports car.
Jaguar Land Rover Classic Director, Tim Hannig, says of the project, "The Jaguar D-type is one of the most iconic and beautiful competition cars of all time, with an outstanding record in the world's toughest motor races. And it's just as spectacular today. The opportunity to continue the D-type model's success story, by completing its planned production run in Coventry, is one of those once-in-a-lifetime projects that our world-class experts at Jaguar Land Rover Classic are proud to fulfil."
The D-type will actually be the third continuation vehicle from Jaguar Classic, and follows on from the six missing Lightweight E-type models that were finally completed by the company in 2014-15, and nine XKSS models that were produced in 2017-18.
Even though cars inevitably conjure up obvious historical, and perhaps even sentimental feelings among enthusiasts, there are sound financial reasons behind producing this type of car. Although they do take a considerable amount of time and money to create, the amount of money each example sells for delivers a huge profit for the manufacturer. Continuation cars from company's like Jaguar and Aston Martin can retail for upwards of seven figures in some cases, which will deliver as much profit per unit as quite a few XF or XE models will do.
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