Fabulous New Jaguar D Type Book by Clive Beecham.

[miurasv]

XKD 603 'Through the Lens of Time' The Storied Journey of a D Type Jaguar by Clive Beecham.

Recently bought and had the pleasure of reading the above 340 page hard back book that comes with high quality cover and wonderfully lustrous 200 gsm paper, which is limited to 603 copies plus 100 deluxe signed copies with slip case.

It's about one D Type, XKD 603, one of the world's greatest, most successful and original racing cars from the 1950s and its fantastic full 4 year racing career at the very top level, from being a Jaguar Works car in 1956, then passing to Ecurie Ecosse from 1957 through to 1959 and then with its 5 owners after its period racing career to the present time.

The D Type for me has been a mythical and legendary car since I was a very young boy in the late 1960s. My father was a car fanatic and he would tell me about very famous cars such as Jaguar's D Type and Bluebird, years before telling me about Ferraris. With that amazing rear fin and beautifully curvaceous body, the D Type was a wondrous thing to me in my formative years of a magnitude like the NASA Apollo 11 Saturn V Space Rocket and Concorde were.

The author of XKD 603 'Through the Lens of Time' The Storied Journey of a D Type Jaguar, the car's owner Clive Beecham, has thoroughly researched the full history of "603" from its beginning, and has shared her with many genuine car enthusiasts during his ownership, reuniting people with her such as Australian Jaguar Works mechanic Ron Gaudion and time keeper Hugh Langrishe from the car's period racing history who both contribute to the book.

The book contains many previously unpublished pictures by the World's greatest photographers, pieces by Michael Quinn, grandson of Jaguar's founder Sir William Lyons, covers all of its 19 races including its 4 races at Le Mans (2nd in 1957) with images of 603's Factory Works Book detailing what the factory did to the car, information on all its drivers, 7 of whom were Le Mans winners, some interesting and amusing stories by Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory of whom there is a great close up picture, how it was wrongfully sold as the 1957 Le Mans winner by David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse to its first owner in America after its period racing career.

With others such as former Jaguar Designer Ian Callum, and the foreword by Dario Franchitti, there are very interesting and humorous interviews with Lord Bamford, owner of "603" for 36 years and Willie Green, who raced the car in historic racing in Bamford's ownership from 1973, and gives an insightful comparison between the D Type and its period competitors, as does Gregor Fisken in his excellent contribution to the book. Pleasingly revealing to me was how the book helped me understand why the D Type was such a focused and successful Le Mans weapon, but not so good at other tracks such as the Nurburgring. There is also a chapter by engineer David Brazell, who has looked after the car for around 25 years, where he guides us around the wonderful originality and details of the car.

The book is soulful and very well written by all its contributors and the modern photography of the latter sections is wonderful. Of course there is much more to the book than I have written above. In addition to the fantastic D Type pictures there are well over 25 full page period Ferrari portraits, many of which I've never seen before, as well as portraits of the D's other competitors from Aston Martin, Maserati and Porsche. It's a beautiful book that fans of the D and its period competitors will certainly take great pleasure in reading and viewing, as I have.

Highly recommended.

Steven Robertson.

Edited by miurasv on Sunday 26th September 07:42