Stirling Moss and the C-Type

On Sunday 6th May 2012 at the Donington Historic Festival, Stirling Moss will take to the track in the actual Jaguar C-type he drove to victory in the 1952 Reims Grand Prix for sports cars, exactly 60 years ago.

But, impressive as it was, his 1952 victory was more than a mere race win. This was the first-ever race victory in a disc-braked car, a landmark event which cemented the Jaguar marque’s reputation for innovative engineering and helped to make disc brakes the universal technology they are today.

The Donington Historic Festival will see the history-making car and driver reunited, as Sir Stirling – who only retired from racing last year, aged 81 – completes some demonstration laps for spectators. Stirling will be signing autographs for fans during the day, as well as driving the world-famous C-type, chassis XKC 005 (instantly recognisable by its original registration number of MDU 212), in its 60th anniversary year.

No doubt it will be a less demanding day for Sir Stirling than it was at Reims in 1952, when the heat was so intense and the competition so fierce that he was near to collapsing after taking the chequered flag. Jaguar’s team manager at the time, ‘Lofty’ England (later to become Chairman and Chief Executive of Jaguar), reported that while the National Anthem was played in honour of Stirling’s victory, the team helped him to stand while they poured a bucket of water over him to keep him conscious!

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We were lucky enough to meet Sir Stirling a couple of years ago when he was in Melbourne for Motorclassica and in this video see ‘Lofty’ talk about the 1952 Le Mans effort with the C-Type and The Man himself.