1962 Jaguar C-Type Proteus Racer
Re-Creation

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Description

(SOLD) This fully race-prepared Jaguar C-Type recreation was built by Ten Tenths, the vintage race car company co-owned by Pink Floyd drummer and legendary sports car enthusiast,Nick Mason. Based upon a Proteus steel tube-frame chassis with an alloy envelope body, both faithful to the original C-Type design, the car was fitted with a Jaguar 3.4-litre six with triple sidedraft Weber 45 DCOE carburetors, delivering their power through a Jaguar synchromesh four-speed overdrive gearbox and rear axle. Power disc brakes were fitted at all four corners. Proteus was founded in Lancashire, UK in the 1980s by Jim Marland, and based their builds on a tubular steel chassis.

About Nick Mason and Ten Tenths Racing:

Nick Mason has been collecting cars since the heyday of Pink Floyd and is considered by many in the industry to be a true connoisseur...His Ten Tenths Racing Company and Collection of cars are regularly used on road and in competition, with appearances at events in the U.K. from London to Brighton to the Le Mans Classic. They are dedicated to keeping the cars in his collection in peak operating condition, and as such are considered by many to be some of the best-loved, hardest-used and most-often seen in the entire classic car world. Nick has an established history of competition with Jaguars, including his Jaguar D-type – which was a three-owner, 20,000-mile 1954 car he has owned since the late 1970s. ‘It was the first serious car I bought,’ he says. It wasn’t to be the last…”

Famed British racing driver Stirling Moss said it best when he described Nick Mason’s private car collection and Ten Tenths as being “that rare, if ever, fleeting moment when a racing driver and his car are at their ultimate limit.”

History

The Jaguar C-Type (officially called the Jaguar XK120-C) is a racing sports car built by Jaguar and sold from 1951 to 1953. The "C" stands for "competition". The car combined the running gear of the contemporary, road-proven XK120, with a lightweight tubular frame designed by Jaguar Chief Engineer William Heynes, and an aerodynamic aluminum body, jointly developed by William Heynes, R J (Bob) Knight and later Malcolm Sayer. A total of 53 C-Types were built, 43 of which were sold to private owners, mainly in the US. The road-going XK120’s 3.4-litre twin-cam, straight-6 engine produced between 160 and 180 bhp (134 kW). The C-Type version was originally tuned to around 205 bhp (153 kW). The early C-Types were fitted with SU carburetors and drum brakes. Later C-Types, produced from mid 1953, were more powerful, using triple twin-choke Weber carburetors and high-lift camshafts. They were also lighter, and braking performance was improved by using disc brakes on all four wheels. The lightweight, multi-tubular, triangulated frame was designed by Heynes. Heynes, Knight and Sayer together developed the aerodynamic body. Made of aluminum in the barchetta style, it was devoid of road-going items such as carpets, weather equipment and exterior door handles. According to the Jaguar Heritage Registry, the cars were produced between May 1952, starting with XKC001, and ending in August 1953 with XK054. The original alloy body was marked with the prefix K (e.g. K1037).

The C-Type was successful in racing, most notably at the Le Mans 24 hours race, which it won twice. In 1951, the car won at its first attempt. The factory entered three, whose driver pairings were Stirling Moss and Jack Fairman, Leslie Johnson and triple Mille Miglia winner Clemente Biondetti, and the eventual winners, Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead. The Walker-Whitehead car was the only factory entry to finish, the other two retiring with lack of oil pressure. A privately entered XK120, owned by Robert Lawrie, co-driven by Ivan Waller, also completed the race, finishing 11th.