Author McDonough put 4 WPD through its paces at Silverstone, and discovered just why everyone was so excited by the car back in its day.
Photo: Pete Austin
The year 2011 marks 50 years of the E-Type Jaguar or, as some of you know it better, the XKE.
It’s a bit unsettling to find myself being unphased by remembering things that happened 50 years ago—a sure sign of advanced age. Fifty years ago, in August of 1961, I spent a weekend at the Bridgehampton circuit on Long Island, across the Long Island Sound from Connecticut and some 80 miles from New York City. The race that weekend was essentially a club meeting, but with some very interesting people there. There was a Birdcage Maserati, and I think a Scarab or two. Then there was a white car with a large fin on it that had a lot of people speculating. I remember folks in the paddock saying that Jaguar was producing a new D-Type, which was being driven by a fellow from New Jersey by the name of Walt Hansgen. There was an impressive entourage around Walt and the car and a lot of attention was being given to a dapper-looking man by the name of Briggs Cunningham.
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