Purpose-built race cars are one thing, but the D-Type that Jaguar developed in the early 1950s was as focused as any car had ever been. Taking jet-age technology to the road, Jaguar’s top engineer, William Heynes, created a monocoque composed of lightweight aluminum alloy wrapped into a streamlined shape with a low hood line thanks to its dry-sump engine.

Over the course of the D-Type’s run, Jaguar made numerous modifications annually as it sought to perfect the design. Perhaps the most iconic is the long-nose body, in part because it represented the automaker’s final year officially campaigning a racing team and because it paved the way for the model’s dominance in the 1957 season when campaigned privately. After 1956, Jaguar reworked its remaining D-Type inventory into road-going XKSS cars that could race in sports-car competition.

Nostalgia for the D-Type began early on, fueled in part by the Browns Lane fire in February 1957 that took with it the tooling necessary to build more D-Types. The example offered here is believed to have been built in the 1980s and is constructed of the requisite aluminum body. The underpinnings are based on a 1965 S-Type, which was powered by a 3.8-liter evolution of the straight-six used in Jaguars since the groundbreaking 1948 XK 120. Its reproduction ASH222 number plate recalls a highly documented production D-Type that competed to considerable acclaim in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.

The car was enjoyed early in its life in competition in Australia and New Zealand and was used by noted Southern California expert Ashton Marshall in the early 1990s. For the last 25 years, it has been largely preserved in a private collection with limited use aside from being started periodically. With a fresh mechanical evaluation, this 3.8-liter, exquisitely detailed example will be ready for enjoyment and would be at home in any collection of fine competition cars.