Top Model 1/43 Jaguar C-Type Longtail #19 Green Le Mans 1952 Whitehead/Stewart

Lovely boxed, hand made resin model from Italian artisans Top Model.

Longtail version of the Jaguar C-Type, Car #19, Drivers Peter Whitehead/Ian Stewart, 1952 Le Mans 24hr, DNF (head gasket). Resin model with photo-etched wire wheels, aluminium turned rims and rubber tyres. In British Racing Green with black on white racing number 19 roundels, yellow-tinted headlamp lenses, silver front grille, brown bonnet straps, pale green seats, black interior sides and 3-spoke steering wheel. Silver gear lever, grey floor, green dashboard with white on black detailed instrument dials, windscreen, reflective rear view mirror, metal fuel cap and spare wheel hatch lever, red tail light lenses, metal side-exit exhaust.

It comes attached to its plinth with intact transparent hard plastic case and card box.

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.

In 1952, Jaguar, worried by a report about the speed of the Mercedes-Benz 300SLs that would run at Le Mans, modified the C-Type's aerodynamics to increase the top speed. However, the consequent rearrangement of the cooling system made the cars vulnerable to overheating, and all three retired from the race. The Peter Whitehead-Ian Stewart and Tony Rolt/Duncan Hamilton cars blew head gaskets, and the Stirling Moss-Peter Walker car, the only one not overheating having had a full-sized radiator hurriedly fitted, lost oil pressure after a mechanical breakage. Testing by Norman Dewis at MIRA after the race proved that the overheating was caused more by the revisions to the cooling system than by the altered aerodynamics: the water pump pulley was undersized, so it was spinning too fast and causing cavitation; also the header tank was in front of the passenger-side bulkhead, far from the radiator, and the tubing diameter was too small at 7/8 inch. With the pump pulley enlarged, and the tubing increased to 1+1⁄4-inch, the problem was eliminated. The main drawback of the new body shape was that it reduced downforce on the tail to the extent that it caused lift and directional instability at speeds over 120 mph (193 km/h) on the Mulsanne Straight. These cars had chassis numbers XKC 001, 002 and 011. The first two were dismantled at the factory, and the third survives in normal C-type form.

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