82 EDITION 198 JAGUAR MAGAZINE
01 TWR Jaguar chassis #387 was a car we saw being prepared at the TWR workshops for Le Mans in 1987. We didn't
know it was brand new, and it was the best placed Silk Cut Jaguar there that year. However, in a short space of time it
wore three more identities and won Le Mans in 1990 as #1090!01
i
IF YOU READ THE JAGUAR MAGAZINE REGULARLY
you will know we are passionate about documenting and
exposing the faking of historic cars - be they road or racing
machines. C-Types, D-Types and Lister Jaguars head the
general focus because there were many built and there are no
official records for Listers. C and D-Types too often have long,
vague or clouded lives. A few are mysteries. Sometimes parts
removed from one car are used to create a second bearing the
same chassis number. The most profound case surrounds the
1957 Le Mans winning D-Type XKD606. Two cars had major
parts of the original, and each owner claimed their's to be the
genuine machine. That issue was resolved only when a single
Dutch devotee purchased both and recombined the genuine
pieces to make one legitimate XKD606.
Of course, that outcome is exceptional.
The late-Ian Cummins in Sydney created such accurate
D-Type clones (without factory chassis numbers) that perhaps
as many as five are in Europe portrayed and racing now as
genuine factory-built cars. That was never Ian's intention.Clearly, the widespread practice is founded on money. If the
same people faked the Mona Lisa they would find themselves
in the tightest of lock-ups very quickly! Not so with forged
cars - mostly! Usually, the perpetrators who fudge them either
work in dark factories out of sight, or pass themselves off as
respectable enthusiasts and as clean as newly fallen snow.
Many prestige manufacturers with a pedigree now offer
what they often call 'tribute cars'. In Jaguar's case that includes
Lightweight E-Types, D-Types and XK-SS road and racing
sports cars. They all wear chassis numbers allocated during the
original build programme, but which were not used at the time.
They are definitely not in the fake category, but are genuine
factory cars built by the manufacturer decades later.
What you don't expect is a manufacturer who builds and
sells fakes of their own cars! In the brilliant new book written
and published by TWR's former head of Mazda rotary and
Jaguar V12 racing engines (from 1979), Allan Scott reveals in
just a few pages a secret system operating at TWR.
In TWR and Jaguar's V12 Prototype Sports Cars, Allan