With five Le Mans wins achieved during the 1950s, Jaguar’s success in the gruelling French enduro was among the most influential factors in its meteoric post-war rise.

Rarely has the ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ mantra been more apt, as the firm capitalised on racing success and engineered race technology into their production cars.

Jaguar’s debut at the 24 Heures du Mans was in 1950 when three new, factory-prepared 3.4-litre XK120s were released to selected private entrants to test the waters.

In the end, Jaguar's management were satisfied with the performance of their cars – two finished, and the other had run as high as second before retiring - but resolved to fix the brake problems that had troubled all three cars through the race.

Motivated by this result, William Lyons set his sights on a win the following year and, immediately after the Motor Show launch of the Mk VII in October 1950, he gave the green light for a redesigned XK120-based machine.

He created a new Competi...