'This 190mph technical masterpiece, designed, built and prepared totally within Jaguar, was to achieve a hat-trick of spectacular Le Mans victories in the 1950s.' - Paul Skilleter, Jaguar: The Sporting Heritage .

The Jaguar C-Type had won the coveted Le Mans 24 Hour race twice (in 1951 and 1953) and was still competitive when Chief Engineer Bill Heynes and his team set about designing its successor.

Moving the game on, Heynes abandoned the C-Type's tubular spaceframe chassis, adopting instead an aluminium monocoque body tub to which the aluminium front sub-frame carrying the engine and suspension was welded.

It was an immensely far-sighted design, though later versions switched to a bolted-on steel framework.

As ever, victory at Le Mans was Jaguar's first priority and so a great deal of attention was paid to getting the aerodynamics right.

Aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer duly came up with an efficient, wind-cheating shape that enabled the D-Type to outrun the opposition despite havin...