D Jag ©DennisGray2009

By the spring of 1954 the Jaguar’s new racer was running. Although it had no official name but names like C-Type Mk II and D-Type, the latter stuck.
Four cars were entered in the 1954 LeMans 24 Hours, including the prototype. Although the Jaguars were on the pace, it was not enough to match the 4.9 litre Ferrari of Gonzales / Trintignant. In 1955 Jaguar returned with the large valve engine long nose D-Types to take the marque's third victory. Unfortunately the race was overshadowed by the worst accident in motorsport's history. Three hours in the race one of the Mercedes Benz 300 SLR's was launched off an Austin Healey and crashed and burned on one of the grandstands, claiming the lives of the driver and over 80 spectators. The race continued, surprisingly, but Mercedes Benz withdrew their cars, when news came out of the large number of lives lost. This effectively meant the complete withdrawal of Mercedes Benz from motorsport. The Fangio / Moss SLR lead the Hawthorn / Bueb Jaguar by two laps when they were called in. This 'paved' the way for Jaguar's third victory, after all Ferraris had retired. By 4 pm on Sunday the leading D-Type had a lead of over 40 miles to the second placed Aston Martin.