Nothing’s called a replica anymore…it’s a continuation car. And this one’s a stunner based on the Jaguar C-Type: Meet the Ecurie Ecosse LM-C.
Scottish racing team Ecurie Ecosse has revealed its limited run of Jaguar C-Type continuation cars called the Ecurie Ecosse LM-C. And it looks stunning.
For those who know nothing about Ecurie Ecosse it was kicked off by an Edinburgh accountant, David Murray in the late 1940s. He went on to compete in a number of grands prix but hung up his racing gloves in 1951 after a heavy crash in Germany. But his team continued.
And in 1952 the team’s new driver, Ian Stewart collected a Jaguar C-Type. The team ended up racing seven different C-Types and realised 59 podium finishes and two Le Mans wins in 1956 and ‘57 racing the D-Type. The history of the C-Type is well known, it was the first race car to be tweaked in a wind tunnel, was used as a test bed by Dunlop to develop disc brakes and boasted fuel bag tanks borrowed from aviation. Sir Stirling Moss said, “I always really rated the C-type – for me it was a far better car than the D”.
So, while Jaguar has brought back the D-Type as a continuation car, Ecurie Ecosse decided to celebrate its seven race-winning C-Types and release seven ‘new’ cars paying homage to the originals, which still exist. These certainly aren’t rickety old replicas, sure they’re still built from thin-gauge aluminium alloy and mounted to a steel spaceframe chassis but it’s wider and stiffer than before and it’s been laser-cut for accuracy.
Under the bonnet is still a Jaguar straight-six XK engine although it’s been beefed up to 4.2 litres and fuel injected booting power to 300bhp, and it’s now mated to five-speed manual transmission. The suspension and the brakes have been beefed up too.
The attention to detail is impressive, the seats are hand-fabricated aluminium buckets wrapped in blue leather and the dashboard features Tag Heuer ‘Master Time’ stopwatches.
There’s no word on pricing, expect it to cost a lot, but the first car has been finished and is ready for customer drives.
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