To reduce the XK engine's height dry sump lubrication was developed, and it has been said that the car's frontal area was also a consideration in canting the engine at 8½° from the vertical (which necessitated the offset bonnet bulge). The D-Type required a minimal frontal area.
The aerodynamic influence was partly the work of Malcolm Sayer, who had joined Jaguar following a stint with the Bristol Aeroplane Company during the Second World War and later worked on the C-Type. Fuel was carried in the tail and the designers followed aviation practice by specifying a deformable Marston Aviation Division bag in place of a conventional tank. Rear suspension and final drive were mounted to the rear bulkhead. To the front bulkhead was attached an aluminium tubing subframe for the engine, steering assembly, and front suspension. Its elliptical shape and comparatively small cross-section provided torsional rigidity and reduced drag. The "tub", or cockpit section, was of monocoque construction, mostly comprising sheets of aluminium alloy. The design applied aeronautical technology, revolutionary at the time. ĭouble overhead cam 3.4 litre straight six cylinder XK6 engine Jaguar is quoted as claiming it built 75 D-Types. Total production is thought by some to have totaled 71 D-Types, including 18 for factory teams and 53 for privateers (plus an additional 16 D-Types were converted into road-legal XKSS versions).
In 1957 25 of these cars were in various stages of completion when a factory fire destroyed nine of them. After Jaguar temporarily retired from racing as a factory team, the company offered the remaining unfinished D-Types as street-legal XKSS versions, whose perfunctory road-going equipment made them eligible for production sports car races in America. Its structure, however, was radically different, with innovative monocoque construction and slippery aerodynamics that integrated aviation technology, including in some examples a distinctive vertical stabilizer.Įngine displacement began at 3.4 litres, was enlarged to 3.8 L in 1957, and reduced to 3.0 L in 1958 when Le Mans rules limited engines for sports racing cars to that maximum. Designed specifically to win the Le Mans 24-hour race, it shared the straight-6 XK engine and many mechanical components with its C-Type predecessor. The Jaguar D-Type is a sports racing car that was produced by Jaguar Cars Ltd.
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