If you’re going to make a mark, make a big one. Jaguar was still in the ‘promising youngster’ category when in 1951 it draped a slinky body over its XK120 sports car and packed it off to Le Mans. Soon after the marque was world-famous for a dominant victory. But a humiliating three-car collapse a year later desperately needed avenging, so in 1953 a three-car team travelled down from Browns Lane to face one of the toughest fields seen at Le Mans for years. Italy had Ferrari, Lancia and Alfa Romeo; France hoped for another Talbot triumph; Briggs Cunningham had reinforced his brawny V8 team and Aston Martin’s new DB3S showed promise. Only last year’s victor, Mercedes, stayed away, its sights on higher things. And the field was rife with grand prix aces: Fangio, Villoresi, Ascari, Farina and González, plus Stirling Moss and Peter Walker in the British team.

With Weber carbs and paper-thin alloy skin, the C-types were quicker and lighter, plus they packed a brave innovation – disc brakes. And there was no tougher test than braking from 155mph after three miles of Mulsanne… Driving with his friend Tony Rolt, Duncan Hamilton was full of confidence, as son Adrian recalls. “They’d stripped 120lb from those lightweight Cs, even leaving the brass badge off the nose. They weren’t as fast as the 4.5-litre Ferrari, but they braked much later. Dad felt that’s where they could win. That and reliability. They were well prepared. Dad wrote some nonsense in his book about being pissed the night before, but you couldn’t survive Le Mans unless you were in good shape.”

Cue a tense battle between the high-powered Cunninghams, Ferraris and the nimble Jaguars. Moss assumed a healthy lead early on, but dropped back when a dirty fuel filter cost him time in the pits, handing Rolt/Hamilton the lead. “Dad reckoned Le Mans was won or lost during the night,” says Adrian. “He had exceptional night vision, so he was fast in the dark.”