Jaguar C-Type, Carmen Red

Of the 53 C-Types built, 43 went to private owners, most of them in America, and XKC 023 shows what that could mean. Shipped in late 1952 through the West Coast importer Charles Hornburg to the Seattle dealer Joe Henderson, it raced in the Seafair 100 at Seattle in August 1953 with Bill Pollack and the Hollywood writer and producer Jack Douglas. It was rolled at Torrey Pines in 1955, rebodied in Devin glass-fibre by Ces Critchlow in 1957, and owned from 1962 by Frank Schierenbeck, before Terry Larson traced it in 1997. It ran the Mille Miglia Storica in 2001 and received its FIA Heritage Certificate in 2006. CMC modelled it in C-Type form as it stood in 2016, in the Swiss collection of Dr Christian Jenny.

That is the car shown here: Carmen Red, no race numbers, Swiss registration plates front and rear, low aero screens and a round mirror on the scuttle. The forward-hinged bonnet lifts and locks to show the twin-cam six; the driver's door opens to black seats and a black-rimmed wheel, the passenger side under a tonneau. Wire wheels with stainless spokes sit behind knock-off hubs. A limited edition of 1,000. CMC builds it at 1:18, from more than 1,150 parts.