4) Jaguar is the first manufacturer to equip its cars with disc brakes. The Type Cs driven by
Stirling Moss and Norman Dewis in 1952 were so endowed. The Italian race organizers were so surprised by their performance that they demanded Jaguar to conduct a demonstration to prove it wasn’t an illegal technology!
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| Photo: Jaguar |
5) In 1953, the Jaguar Type Cs dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans, clinching first, second and fourth place. William Lyons (photo) immediately dispatched a telegram to the Queen Elizabeth II, dedicating this victory to her, achieved as it was in the year of her coronation. Delighted, the young sovereign promptly returned a congratulatory note. Lyons was knighted two years later.
6) American actor Steve McQuen owned one of the 16 Jaguar XKSSs built in 1957. He kept it for 10 years before selling it – only to buy it back again. He was stopped by a patrol car one day while he was speeding down the highway with his wife Neile, then six months pregnant. McQueen told the police officer that he was driving so fast because his wife was in labour. The officer believed him and even offered to escort him to the hospital. The Hollywood star thus avoided an umpteenth ticket, to his wife’s profound annoyance. One of McQueen’s biographers claims she didn’t at all appreciate having to admit to the hospital staff that it was a false alarm!
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| Photo: Jaguar |
7) It’s said that “il Commandatore” Enzo Ferrari at some time pronounced the Jaguar Type E, at first sight, the “most beautiful automobile ever created.” During the same period, the American magazine Road & Track is said to have described it as “the greatest crumpet collector known to man.”
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| Photo: Jaguar |
