JAGUAR’S EARLY TIN-TOP DOMINATION

Jaguar’s gargantuan Mk7 was the early saloon car pacesetter in the UK, but by the time the British Saloon Car Championship began it had given way to the Mk1 – a designation retrospectively applied once the Mk2 arrived in 1959. Both models, with the 3.4-litre and 3.8-litre XK engines that won Le Mans in C-types and D-types, were tin-top racing benchmarks. They racked up 42 championship race victories, but never scored a drivers’ title, thanks to the class structure. The Mk2 won every round in 1961 and ’62 before finally being outgunned by the arrival of American V8 muscle in ’63.

Jaguar virtually invented the high-performance saloon genre with the 3.4 Mk1

Wood still features in racing Jag’s cockpit