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Liveries Matter
Tag: C-Type
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A C-Type in Sicily
When I conjure a Jaguar C-Type in my mind it’s always surrounded by verdant rolling hills of Spa or the green pastures of Goodwood. For some reason it never even occurred to me to imagine her in the brown and dusty roads of the Piccolo Circuito delle Madonie.
The Sicilian mountains seem to suit her though, don’t you think? Tommy Wisdom sure thought so when he took a C-Type to finish 17th at the 1953 running of the Targa Florio. You might think that 17th is nothing to brag about, but even finishing the Targa is a proud accomplishment.
It’s always inspiring to see such amazing work from a young photographer. Mathieu is only in his early 20s but possesses the sophisticated eye of a much more seasoned photographer. His Flickr stream has a wonderful assortment of shots in both professional studio setups and casual caught-on-the-street snaps. As you can see, I love those that are (or look like they are) chance meetings between the photographer and these amazing machines on Parisian boulevards. Sensational stuff.
More on Mathieu Bonnevie’s Flickr.
This is a project I can really get behind. The Coventry Racers project hopes to locate and catalog every Jaguar C-Type, D-Type, E-Type Lightweight and XKSS; both those that are still gathering concours and racing trophies, and those that haven’t survived. The open nature of the Coventry Racers project is its real appeal.
Unlike secret catalogs of cars that dealers and collectors use to track down potential purchases, the Coventry Racers project is managed, Wiki-style, by the public at large. These contributors offer their own photographs, accounts of car locations, and articles about particular examples. All of these are sorted by serial number, and help to build a complete repository of information on each and every example of these cars. What a wonderful resource for sportscar nerds (like myself) who just want to read about these tremendous cars, and for collectors who want any bit of information on their example to increase the provenance of their vehicles—before or after purchase.
I’ve included a photo here that I shot at the July 2008 VSCDA Continental Grand Prix at Autobahn Country Club this past July. This was one of two D-Types at the event. While neither raced, it was fantastic to see these remarkable cars out at the track. One of these cars actually sees a bit of road time, the owner drove the Jag to the track, and shared a story of driving it up to Elkhart Lake as well—perhaps a 2-hour highway drive in a car that I’m sure drew quite a bit of attention on the freeway.