For the Jaguar Enthusiasts the real highlight was the run of the legendary team Sir Stirling Moss / Norman Dewis in the same Jaguar C-Type (XKC005) they were driving 60 years ago at the Mille Miglia 1952 introducing the new technology of disc brakes.
Already on April 14th 1952 Moss drove with disc brakes on Jaguar XKC003 in Goodwood. He became 4th with the fastest lap. XKC003 was later on scraped at the factory. But it was XKC005 seen here at the Ennstal Classic that became the first winning car using disc brakes when Moss won in Reims later in 1952. Moss also won in Boreman and Turnberry and was second in Goodwood and Charterhall. 1953 the car was driven as factory car in the Mille Miglia by Tony Rolt where it broke down.
Moss actually was the force behind the scenes to go for disc brakes, so the cars got Dunlop disk brakes for the Mille Miglia. Moss at that time: “The disc brakes were incredible. Whereas the Ferrari and Mercedes could all brake once pretty well and then overheat, the Jaguar could repeatedly stop later and faster over and over again, and the Mille Miglia was the ultimate real world test. It was a joint idea between the team – where could we go, on the road, at racing speeds over a thousand miles – and we said if it can do this, then we will have a production brake that we can make available.” And about Reims Moss remembers today: „We had big problems in Reims, the brake fluid started to boil and the flexible hubs pulled the blocks away from the discs in the bends. Fortunately on the long lines in Reims the brakes had time to cool down. But we were sure that the disc brakes were the future…”.
XKC005 has been the fifth of 53 built Jaguar XKC. The car still has the original 3.4 litre engine with two overhead camshafts which it had when won in Reims.
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