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Even among Lord Laidlaw's cars, this is the big car. It's big physically, with its 285 hp, 3,781 cc DOHC six-cylinder; and it's big historically, the first long-nose D-Type, raced by Jaguar Works as part of the team that won Le Mans in 1955 (it's the sister car to the winner, XKD 505), and after by Ecurie Ecosse at Silverstone and the Nürburgring 1000. D-Types were so competitive that this one, XKD 504, was raced until a major accident in 1963, in the process seeing action at Le Mans again, Spa, St. Etienne and everywhere else in Europe.

Later, as people became more concerned with historical accuracy, an owner found the original damaged chassis components and by 1966, it had been rebuilt by the factory using the subframe from XKD 505, and entered one of the first historic races, at Castle Coombe, driven by Neil Corner.

And here's where I have to admit that I don't really like the D-Type, especially the long nose. It was built solely for Le Mans and it did that so very well, hitting close to 180 mph on the Mulsanne straight. But I can't help feel it lacks the elegance of the previous C-Type, which was a lot more of a street car in racing clothes than this full-out endurance race car with its (Michael Keaton) Batmobile wing. It's very much the Le Mans equivalent of a Superbird, which is cool and fun, but also vaguely ridiculous. I mean, Joe Dirt drove a wing car around; if you wanted a D-Type for the street, you drove an XKSS. You know, like Steve McQueen.

I also recognize I'm in a minority. I have no problem with the D-Type's performance or history, and certainly not with the engine. It's just the looks. Because that thing is a monster, making the sort of mechanical noises that people like us dream about. Does it sound as good as the other cars from the Lord Laidlaw collection we've featured? Let us know.

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