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The two iconic brands of the glory days of British motorsport in the 1950s return to Le Mans next week to relive past victories in the 24-hour event.
Jaguar's D-Type sports racing car will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its most famous race result, the 1-2-3-4-6 finish in
1957.
And Sir Stirling Moss, Britain's most celebrated race driver, will get behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DBR1 he drove to victory in 1959.
The Jaguar D-Types that placed first and second in 1957 will take part in a special trophy presentation on the start-finish straight, just before next week's race begins. They will also make three laps of the 13.7km La Sarthe circuit.
The cars are owned by Dutch financier Evert Louwman and billionaire British businessman Sir Anthony Bamford.
Louwman, who has a 50 per cent stake in auction house Bonhams & Brooks, is a renowned car collector. He also owns Genevieve, the Paris-built 1904 Darracq and star of the 1953 British comedy of the same name.
Sir Anthony Bamford is the owner of British construction giant JCB. His father Joseph started the company in 1946 and Sir Anthony took over as chairman and managing director in 1975, on his 29th birthday. He was knighted in 1990.
Both cars will be joined in the celebrations by D-Types owned by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. The reunion has been organised by the trust and Michael Quinn, grandson of Jaguar's founder Sir William Lyons.
"The 1957 victory for Jaguar was such a landmark at Le Mans that we were determined that the 50th anniversary of it should be properly celebrated," said Quinn.
"It was, after all, a major British triumph and a great achievement for a relatively small manufacturer at the time. It helped put Jaguar firmly on the world map."
Jaguar had officially pulled out of racing in 1957, but wanted to add to its earlier success at Le Mans. It had won with the D-Type in 1955 and'56 and with the C-Type in 1951 and 1953.
It arranged for legendary Scottish team Ecurie Ecosse to compete on its behalf in 1957 and provided it with fully prepared D-Types.
Ecurie Ecosse is French for "Scotland's stable". It was founded in 1952 by Edinburgh businessman and Formula One driver David Murray and mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson. It had won in 1956 with a D-Type.
The Scottish team gave Jaguar its best-ever result and a hat-trick of D-Type wins at Le Mans. The winning car was driven by Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb. Flockhart had won the 1956 race with Scotsman Ninian Sanderson. Bueb had teamed with Mike Hawthorn to win in 1955.
The second car in 1957 was piloted by Sanderson and John Lawrence. Jean Lucas and Jean-Marie Brussin finished third, Belgian journalist Paul Frere and Freddy Rouselle fourth, and Mike Hawthorn and Masten Gregory sixth.
It would be more than 30 years before Jaguar would win again.
Ecurie Ecosse entered a D-Type again in 1958 but suffered engine failure soon after the start. Another D-Type in 1959 was forced out after 70 laps. A heavily modified D-Type in 1960 also retired with engine failure.
Ecurie Ecosse withdrew from motorsport within a couple of years. Financial troubles and the self-imposed tax exile to Spain's Canary Islands of founder Murray effectively ended the team's competitive era by the mid-1960s.
Jaguar returned to Le Mans glory in 1988 with the XJR 9 and repeated the experience in 1990 with the XJR 12.
The XJR 9, which raced again in 1989, also holds the honour of being clocked at 394km/h (243mph) - the second fastest speed ever recorded during the race.
Jaguar's seven victories place it third in the list of Le Mans legends behind Italy's Ferrari and Germany's Porsche.
Sir Stirling Moss will drive the DBR1/2 in the one-hour Legends race, which takes place before the start of the endurance classic. Moss will share the car with Dr Ulrich Bez, the CEO of Aston Martin.
Moss drove for Aston Martin at Le Mans three times, making his debut with the team in a DB3S for the 1956 race, before competing with a DBR1 in 1958 and 1959. He also drove the DBR1 to win the Nurburgring 1000 in Germany. The 77-year-old is looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of one of Aston Martin's most famous cars.
"I tested the DBR1 at Silverstone last week and it felt wonderful," he said. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to race at Le Mans again."
Said co-driver Dr Bez: "I'm sure every racing enthusiast in the world would love to see Sir Stirling and the DBR1 in action again, 48 years after they last appeared there together.
"To partner Sir Stirling in the race is a dream and a great honour for me."
The Legends race has become a central part of the Le Mans event and will next week feature more than 50 of the finest sports cars ever to grace the track, including the Ford GT40, Ferrari 250LM, and Alfa Romeo Tipo 33.
* The worst ever motorsport accident happened during the 1955 Le Mans race. French driver Pierre Levegh's Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR clipped the rear of an Austin Healey on pit straight and lost control. The 300 SLR rammed an earth bank, disintegrated and scattered components into the crowd, killing 80 spectators. Levegh, who had told race organisers that pit straight was too narrow, died instantly. He was 50. The entire Mercedes-Benz team, including Stirling Moss and Juan-Manuel Fangio, withdrew from the race.
Levegh was also a world-class ice hockey and tennis player. He was born Pierre Eugene Alfred Bouillin, but raced under the name Pierre Levegh in memory of his uncle, a pioneering driver who died in a crash in 1904.
