Two true blue Brits today - a pretty S1 #JaguarEtype fronting a four-cylinder 50s #AustinHealey100, both early examples of long-lived #sportscar legends, both tied to LeMans. The original #Healey evolved from a show car built around Austin Atlantic mechanical pieces - largely unwanted after that car cratered in its intended market (the U.S.). The Atlantic’s big four gave the #Healey100 a generous turn of speed over lesser sports cars like the MGA and TR-3 and the 100S competed at Sebring and, more infamously, at LeMans, where Lance Macklin’s 100S was the car Pierre Levegh collided with in 1955. Macklin had braked hard to avoid Mike Hawthorn, who’s #Jaguar D-type’s advanced disc brakes meant that he stopped much faster than Macklin had expected as he motioned to Macklin that he was headed for the pits. It was the D-type’s second outing at LeMans, as it had first appeared in the race in 1954. The D, campaigned by #EcurieEcosse would win the race in 1956 and 1957, and the D-type would get a roadgoing companion, the XKSS, that latter year - though production was curtailed by the #BrownsLane fire. The XKSS was an exceptional car - like a roadgoing LeMans prototype in the mold of the much later Jaguar XJR-15 - a real roadgoing racer with most of the race car in tact under the civilian disguise. But the Healey 100 and E-type were only a bit more removed from race cars. In an era when road sports cars were actually directly tied to serious competition cars, the #XKE was a production vehicle informed by the choices made during the D-type era and directly inspired by the D’s design - with a willing market of enthusiasts who wanted a D-type of their own that they could use on the street. It wasn’t a cheap car - the #etype was nearly twice the price of the big Healey in 1962 - but the XKE was a bargain for the performance if offered, which at that time was only rivaled by serious exotics like Ferrari. #Britishsportscars #racecarsfortheroad #motorsport #madeinengland #England #BritishCars #1960s #speed #Driven #ig_autoshow #bluebloods #racers #classicandthoroughbred #classicandsportscar #carsofinstagram #driving #1962 #oldtimers #carporn #classiccars
