A good D-type with good background was sold this month at the RM auction for $2.0 MM. This seem like a very low price as another was sold earlier this year by Gooding for $3.74 MM and in '08 another sold at Goodwood for $4.4MM. Did somebody just make the deal or the century?

What is the chassis number?

I think the car was severely damaged early in its life and reports suggested it was destroyed.

Is this it http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?S...7&Currency=? XKD558?

According to Andrew Whyte it first went to Canada to a private owner who eventually much modified it with a Ford V8 engine snd Chevrolet wheels!!! In this state it suffered a catastrophic accident in which 'the car demolished itself on landing'. The car underwent 'two rebuilds' (Andrew Whyte's italics). The original engine, gearbox and monocoque AW belives remained in Canada while other bits of the car were used in a Lynx long-nose.

One assumes the car just sold incorporated the original engine, monocoque and gearbox referred to by AW, while the less than pure blood-line would presumably account for the modest price. Shucks - only two million! But then we are in the throes of a world-wide recession...

If it is that car I am surprised it made $2m.
The car was raced around the Vancouver area and was fitted with a Chev v8 and independent rear end.
The car was comprehensively totalled at Westwood in 1964: "Witnesses said trees were clipped off twenty feet from the ground" The car caught fire upon landing. ( Andrew Whyte)\

I personally saw the chassis plate at Ian Newby's house in Vancouver. I think he also had the instruction book! A car with this serial number was offered for sale in the early eighties at Monterey and Newby disputed it. I understand an "agreement" was reached and Newby no longer has the chassis plate...

Looking at the description here the good D - Type was not particularly venerated a non works raced car exported and left lying around for several years during it's life suffering the ignominy of lying idle until Oct '57 prior to being used with some success in the US and then being fitted with an alien power plant and raced some more.

Amongst D - Type aficionados with silly money to spend one would imagine the fact that this vehicle has been permanently separated from its original engine (and possibly gearbox ?) would count against it attracting the big bucks of some of it's more original and storied siblings.

On the other hand may be the silly money has dried up and a modicum of caution has entered the market for used racing cars ?

It was separated from the engine, gearbox, monocoque, suspension and body...

What's left besides the tall story?

It's got the original subframe then?

XKD558

According to the story I saw, http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?...&CarID=r337, the orginal engine was found and reunited with the car. Also it was only a long nose Lynx nose that was fitted to the orginal mono, and later refitted with a more proper short nose. Makes you think you must be very careful before diving into these murky waters.

If the write up is true why did the car sell for half the going rate?
I have a call in to Ian Newby who owned the identity of XKD558 for many years-as I said earlier I recall handling the chassis plate in the late seventies. When the car in question was offered for sale by Rick Cole it only reached about $65,000 if memory serves me right. Big black cloud over this one.

This car was discussed on TNF in 2004. Here are comments from Mike Gee:

Here are more details of the stretch of the D-Jag and the conversion to a V8 sent to me by Tom Johnston. All of this tinkering may have changed the laptimes some, first by Rattenbury and then by Calvert. More research is needed.

Here are the details of the Modifications.
Rattenbury
1. Lengthened the wheelbase by expending the front subfrane. A piece was added to the back edge of the bonnet to accommodate
the extension, otherwise the body changes were minimal
2.The extension was to allow room for a large supercharger that was driven off the front end of the crankshaft, nothing to do with
handling.
3..Added front brake cooling ducts
4.. Converted the rear suspension to deDion to avoid the solid rear axle problems
5.Added a limited slip differential.
6. Added Hilborn Fuel injection

Calvert
1. Ford NASCAR V8
2. Corvette gearbox (I think)
3. Red paint job
4. possibly wider wheels

As to the new Jag that bears the serial number: many dispute the validity of the car. There are two other stories, one that the car
was completely scrapped and the new car is a complete counterfeit, and another that the remains of the car was in storage in West
Vancouver and was destroyed in a construction accident

If you click on this link and then scroll down you will come to the Vancouver Sun report of the accident-rather lurid...

http://www.vrcbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/VRC...-March-2004.pdf

This was a local (Wisconsin) owned car that I have seen a number of times. It was originally the Rattenbury car, as stated, and was comprehensively crashed, as stated. The car as it is today is what I generally refer to as a "gearshift knob" car; that is, a car that was built up around the gearshift knob of the original and now is said to be the original. It was sold out of the estate of Jerry Nell, who was a real Jaguar nut who not only owned this D but essentially one of everything; SS-100, XK-120, XK-140, XK-15-0, E type, XK-SS, and a C type. Not only that, but Jerry and his wife Cathy also donated the Jaguar exhibit at the Milwaukee zoo! After Jerry's very unfortunate passing, Cathy has sold off part of the collection; you may recall the C type going at auction a year ago. That brought more than this D. Last I heard Cathy is retaining the XK-SS and has run in in such outings as the Colorado Grand.
Tom

Well looking at the photo in David's link above, it appears at least the gear stick knob survived the 1965 fire !

If it is the same car it has been around as an entity for a while:
http://www.lynxmotors.co.uk/PressArticles/...Type-cc0676.pdf

One has to wonder how Lynx in 1976 came to think of this 'entity' as XKD 558 while it was in their workshops in Northian, Rye, Sussex if the chassis plate as reported in post #5 was in Vancouver, Canada ?

Here is an article on XKD558. I'm not sure who wrote it. I think it might have been Bob Hayes, a local historian:

"Sn 558 was sold in Vancouver to Oxford Motors in 1956, they “demonstrated” the car at the sports car races then held at the Abbotsford airport, eventually the car was sold to James Rattenbury who raced it at Abbotsford, Westwood and later Seattle. Not happy with the stock Jaguar he modified the car, to increase the handling and power. He lengthened the wheelbase to 95 inches, and installed factory optional a De Dion rear axle assembly. On the power side he installed Hilborn Fuel injection and a Roots blower running off the engines front pulley. The front body was changed from the standard short nose to the longer Le Mans nose to fit the extra length. Jim raced it in 28 races over the next three years, making the podium in over 50% of these races.

In April 1961 it was purchased by Starr Calvert of Seattle, he continued to race it in the Pacific Northwest with some success and a few crashes as well. By 1963 the D type now seven years old needed to be reworked to stay competitive with the emerging Shelby Cobra’s and Corvettes racers. Starr used the next two years to redesign the car to allow an American V8 to be installed. This was a common practice in North America when expensive European sports cars had extensive motor failure. It was cheaper to install one of the new lightweight American small block’s in your Jaguar, producing a 100 more horsepower, plus parts were also readily available certainly not the case in Ferrari’s and Jaguars.

Starr Calvert decided that a small block wouldn’t produce enough power, so he installed a 427 Ford Nascar motor with dual 4 barrel carburetors. This allowed him over 450 horsepower and an equal amount of torque that would have been competitive with the Cobra’s and Corvettes of the time. Starr had some success in 1965 winning several races including the May Bardhal Trophy race at Seattle and the August Seafair race, Unfortunately in the September Texaco race at Westwood he crashed heavily into the trees on the outside of the carousel turn effectively destroying the car

It was eventually sold as parts, which eventually made their way back to Lynx Motor Cars in England to be restored. It was sold to a French enthusiast remaining in Europe till 1987 when it was sold into California, it was sold to an English enthusiast who had it restored to a short nose D type. After racing it for 6 years in England it was sold to Mr Eduardo Baptista of Mexico who campaigned it for another five years till it was purchased by Mr Gerald Nell of Wisconsin (who had Terry Larson restore it again), he enters it at Concourse events in North America."

I have some photos of the car which I can post.

Vince H.

So there are now at least two XKD558s? The Lynx car and this?

When in 1998 I first went to the Goodwood Revival I was rooted to the spot before the D-type in which Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won the '55 le Mans (it said on the notice above the car, and in the programme). At a dinner later that year I met Dick Skipworth and was enthusing about the car. 'well' said Dick ' maybe the door handles were at le Mans'. And of course as Andrew Whyte's book attests, probably not even the door handles - just the sub-frame.

Am I being naive in asking if there is a difference? I can't see that building a new car around a chassis plate is any different from building a new car around a sub-frame.

If two new 'entities' were born out of XKD 558 (haven't we at TNF heard this recently regarding a certain 908 'camera' car) then this might explain why Chris Keith-Lucas of Lynx is reported to have said in 1999: “The condition (of the car in 1976) did not square with the rather lurid press reports about it flying through tree tops, and so on."

The role of Mr Porter in labelling his evidence from Andrew Whyte, post publication, as seemingly a 'little exaggerated' probably has not helped the remade racing car market to correctly value the XKD 558 entities either.

I suspect many, shucks lets be honest, I suspect most with fingers in the remade racing market do not see any difference in building a new car around a chassis plate, gear stick knob or sub-frame either, because unlike cars registered for road use the only rule, in the remade racing car market, is that there are no rules.

If you can remake a vehicle with so much as a keyfob with a story and have the cojones to keep a straight face while telling your story why Pebble Beach is your oyster.

The used racing car market motto seems to be 'to hell with originality and history lets make lots of money !'

Art, you are really on it today! Two superb posts, this one and the Jaguar E2A post. Both are very insightful and incisive takes on this subject. My compliments.
Tom

Thanks Tom must be time to dip my hands in a bucket of iced water

I spoke with Sue Calvert on the phone tonight. Sue is the widow of Starr Calvert and still lives in Seattle. Starr apparently passed away in the 80s.

The first thing she said about the D-type was that as far as she knew, the serial number was separated from the car and attached elsewhere. She said that, some years ago, Pete Lovely gave her a lesson in the intricacies of what happens in the world of historic cars these days. She also noted that there are a couple of photos of the car with Ford engine, before and after the crash, in Martin Rudow's book "Weekends of Glory" (p. 71).

That being said, here's what she told me. Apparently, after the crash, the car, which was pretty much all there, sat on a trailer in front of their house for two years until the neighbours complained! Then Starr and friend/mechanic Dick Smith hauled the car to "Sandy McThrifty" (honest!), a junkyard in the south end of town. I found an old reference in the internet to "Sandy McThrifty Used Cars Inc. 10332E Marginal WyS Seattle." The hood (bonnet) was hung in a tavern, and the steering wheel (which looked original in the photo), went to Stan Burnett, who put it in his race car. Apparently it was in Stan's car when he was killed in a testing crash at Pacific Raceways in 1971. The Calverts sold their house, and two years later, Starr went back to the old house to retrieve the original Jag engine to find it had been sold to a Sears repairman! Apparently the engine had blown years before, which might tie into Martin Rudow's account of "...the sick D-Jaguar (XKD558) of Starr Calvert..." at the April 1, 1962 race at Pacific Raceways. This was apparently its last race before reappearing with the Ford engine in 1965. Sue said that "Ian" (Newby?) tried to chase the engine down. Starr apparently also sold the original rear end (I presume the De Dion that Rattenbury had installed) to someone in Canada. I would think that he would have had a different rear end with the Ford engine. That's all the info she had.

By the way, Sue has been a fixture on the pregrid at historic races at Pacific Raceways in recent years. Unfortunately, she had a bad fall at the track in 2008 and suffered a serious break to her left femur. She hopes to be back at the track this year or next.

Here are a couple of photos of the car at the Abbotsford, B.C. airport circuit before Jim Rattenbury bought it. Photos by Shane Davis:

]

Vince H.

Great info and pics Vince, hope Mrs Calvert makes a swift return to the pre grid at historic races.

Some years ago (maybe 5?) a short nose D Type that had 'lived' near me was sold at auction for about £400,000 which even then seemed like a very low figure.
It had at least one famous name as former, in-period, owner/driver but there was talk of "one chassis number, but two cars".
Even so....seemed like a 'bargain' then and more so now !

Thanks Vince, I have left a message for Ian Newby and for "Starr Calvert" who is presumably the son. I had heard most of the story before. I think finding the engine was a stroke of very good luck...

Makes one wonder how many other XK engines are floating about in Florida ?

D-Type "what-is-it" stories are legion. The lovely D is unique in that it has that hybrid structure, with a monocoque centre section bolted to a tube-frame forepart which effectively inserts into the central tunnel of the monocoque, and then mates at the rear with a smaller lateral subframe which provides the back axle location. The point - of course - is that there is a faction which regards the front frame (into which the chassis serial was stamped) as being the heart of the car, while another faction prefers the monocoque (the only part of the structure visible to the trackside spectator) as the heart of the car.

Truth is that if you separate front frame and monocoque, both halves of the car are immobilised. The engine, gearbox and front suspension remove with the front frame. The rear suspension, fuel tank and hole where the man sits remove with the monocoque. The D-Type's two major assemblies are utterly dependent upon each other to provide mobility.

Jaguar's people - in their Midlands semi-literacy (that will get me into trouble) - described the monocoque as the 'body', because that's what was usually formed from sheet metalwork within their industrial experience. The front frame was instead described as the 'chassis'. This seems to have become the justification used by the front frame ID faction in justifying their definition of what provides a majority ID for a D-Type identity. But due to the extreme inter-dependence of monocoque and front frame in providing a usable mobile car assembly such distinctions have, to me, always seemed very weak.

It's an interesting philosophical argument where old junk racing cars are concerned.

DCN

In short - is the handle or the head the 'hammer'? and the answer of course is, both. seperated, neither is a hammer.

Not if you have neither it isn't Doug!

Good point - well put...

DCN

Which begs the question how many D Types out there have original front frame and monocoque ?

Doug thanks for your extremely valuable and interesting insight

Some more photos of XKD558, as raced by Jim Rattenbury



Deer Park, Spokane, Washington, 1958...Jim won



Opening day, Westwood, 1959...Tom Luce, Corvette, George Keck, Ferrari 250TR (0754), and Jim

There is also a good photo of Jim at Shelton, 1958, at this link:

http://www.rspubs.com/index.php/jaguar-d-type/

At this point, the supercharger had not been fitted, and he was till running in "C Modified". Note the "skookum" roll bar which Jim had fitted.

Vince H.

Absolutly true and well put, but D Type Jaguars have a rare quality, shared only with earthworms (and possibly hammers): When separated in two, each has the ability to grow the missing part, creating two complete examples where before there was one.

Cynic

Shouldn't that be racing cars have a rare quality for transforming into multiple key fob specials ?

For those of us that do not live in the UK; have access to the types of meetings where D types are on display, perhaps someone could explain just HOW it is decided and who decides it, if a D type is 'genuine' or not.
I would imagine that in period, due to accidents or botched modifications, numerous instances occurred wherin tubs AND sub-frames were replaced; at what point do these replacements render the vehicle non-original?
Is it merely a matter of timing?
Is it a matter of geography,ie if a D type spent its life in the UK rather than, say the US, is it MORE likely to be considered 'original'?

Clearly, just because a factory has written a car off does NOT necessarily mean that it actually WAS a write off, depending upon, I imagine, the percentage of salvageable-rebuildable components that were able to be saved.

We all know what a 'key-fob' car is, or is not...that is not what I'm getting at. I'm curious, given that the factory and/or some of the early owners of these cars probably replaced tubs and sub-frames
(and, I'm sure, many other components) several times over, on SOME cars, in period,........ are these STILL regarded as 'original'?

I'd say any racing car that has not been in Europe or the USA since raced in period has as much if not more chance of being original than any car that has been raced in Europe and the USA out of period, excluding E2A which is original, apart from a recently fitted weapons grade engine and back axle, so that it could be raced out of period for the first time and coincidentally is the subject of another hotly debated thread :-)

But to answer your question the used racing car market is probably the best guide to how genuine a vehicle is or not, though like all things human it is not completely infallible.

Unfortunately with each crash the pool of originality get watered down.

I know of two cases where D-types were built from subframes and monocoques, ie four cars out of two

In each case, as far as I recall, each of the four owners was convinced he had the genuine article

In one instance, perhaps both, a benefactor bought the two claimants to one identity and rebuilt them into one inarguable car - no doubt at the loss of a lot of money

The stories are usually well enough known by "insiders" for the real cars to be known. Including XKSS's, something like 80 D-types were built, and in the vast majority of cases the original monocoques and subframes of those that remain are still together

David I am heartened to hear a gentleman bought two key fob specials in order that the various bits of one could original could be reunited at no doubt considerable expense, does this gent have a name ?

He should be given a knighthood and made a saint for his honesty regardless of reckless expense while operating in extremely hostile context of the used racing car market, does his vehicle have a chassis number ?

Some photos from 1960 at Westwood. By this time, a supercharger had been added, so the car was in class "B Modified". In the third photo, Jim is leading Lew Florence's Lotus 15, which I believe Philip Walker has now. By the way, I believe that is Jim's Dodge tow car alongside in the paddock shots.

Vince H.

Did it always rain at Westwood

Not always, but often. There are shadows in the second photo! And opening day was glorious. Come to think of it, in later years, a few races were cancelled because of fire risk! When the weather was good, it was a spectacular setting with a great surroundings.

Vince H.

One can hope that he leaves the original car in a nice safe garage to cherish and races the leftover bits at all the best events.

Indeed the entity of left over bits might have an interesting race history before it was ever assembled

just a quick hello to all on this forum.

8 week old daughter would not go to sleep tonight so open the TNF and have read, there are several subjects i keep looking for and touching base with in here..

I have been reading TNF for Quite some time now and have passed many wonder filled hours reading through these subjects.

D type Jags have significance to me.
As a young lad still in high school in the late 70's I had a weekend job as a general hand/ floor sweeper on my Saturdays at a place in Croydon in Sydney. Place was on Parramatta road.
Classic Autocraft.
present there were OKV 1 (had been modified to XK SS spec by Jumbo Goddard)as well as the one smashed in the sinapore GP and broken in two being restored By Ian Cummins as well as the one that had been owned by Bill Pitt? Also under full resto.
I have photos stashed away and precious memorys from those days as I had the pleasure of working on all these.

one job given was to polish the wheels on OKV1 (due to newspaper article and photos for the SMH)the end result being that they shone to a mirror finish. Although i was paid by both Ian C And Steve Sulis, Ian thanked me by taking me for a spin in OKV1 under the excuse that the clutch needed bedding in.
I vividly remember sitting in the passenger seat of this car ( floor being a bit shorter on this pass side and having the trans tunnel at what felt like the same leverl as my shoulder)watching the tacho needlemove around in 50 or 100 rpm increments which i found odd and having Ian draw my attention to visions of the speedo hovering around 90mph whilst blasting down on parramatta road on a Saturday morning...remember this is 1978. I can still recall this 30+ yrs later.

the other two vehicles were in pieces ians was well along to be put back together with much alloy bodywork repaired remade, the ex pitt vehicle I was tasked to paint strip the body, which took hours and hours mainly due to the presence of body filler under several coats of paint. Silver blue metalic I think. Also uncovered painted on Number backgrounds on the doors and rear bodywork.

now where are those photos and negs

kind regards
Peter Taffa

I recall a visit we made to Steve Sulis's workshop with Ian Cummings to look at some Ds there. I believe Steve used some kind of yacht-grade aluminium for his recreated body panels, and I remember flicking a D bonnet with my index finger-nail and the piece ringing out instantaneously, as sharp and clear as a bell! Compared to the expected 'thock' of normal aluminium this came as a great surprise to me.

DCN

It just felt like it did!
When the developers were selling houses there in the early nineties they were advertising the location as "The Street of Dreams"--I went on the radio and suggested they call it "The Street of Wet Dreams"...

Congrats on the arrival of your daughter, thanks for you memories look forward to seeing those photo's

Welcome to TNF PeterJT

Which, interestingly enough, appears to be a '58 Dodge front and a '58 Plymouth rear. As I recall, back in the '50s a lot of US cars built and sold in Canada were a combination of car components from the manufacturers' bins. I recall that the Pontiac was based on Chevrolet, Fords had different fronts and rears and were called Meteors, and Mercurys similarly were Monarchs.
Tom

Wow! Thanks for alerting me to the '58 Dodge Coronet front and '58 Plymouth Fury rear combination !

What are the chances of finding one of those today ?