The Jaguar D-type, like its predecessor, is a factory-built race car. It was essentially an up-rated C-type with a more powerful engine plus an improved chassis and more aerodynamic body. The standard D-type was a "one-seater", but after Jaguar withdrew from competition, the company offered the Jaguar XKSS which was a "street version" of the racer by making changes to the racers by adding two seats, another door, a full windshield and primitive folding top as concessions to practicality. But on the evening of 12 February 1957, a fire broke out at the Brown Lane factory claiming nine of the twenty five cars that had already been completed or in semi-completion

Elements of the body shape were used in the iconic E-type which, despite the name, was not technically a descendant of this car.

Production is thought to have included 53 original D-types, 18 team-race cars, and 16 XKSS versions.

The Cunningham Team raced several Jaguar D-types after being offered the automobiles by Jaguar's head, Sir William Lyons, if Briggs Cunningham would stop building his own automobiles. In May of 1956, the Cunningham team's entries in the Cumberland circuit in Maryland included three of those D-type Jaguars—characteristically painted in the pristine white-and-blue Cunningham Team colors—for drivers John Fitch, John Gordon Benett, and Sherwood Johnston.

The American actor Steve McQueen owned a Jaguar XKSS for personal use.

After the C-Type 1953, the Jaguar D-Type was the second racecar with Dunlop disk brakes; the Citroen DS, introduced a year later, was the first production car with disk brakes in Europe. In 1949 the Crosley Hotshot was the first American automobile with disk brakes.

Jaguar D-Type ([1] xkss.html)

A subsidiary of Ford (since 1989)																Jaguar Cars road and race car timeline, 1945-present - action=edit edit
Type	1940s					1950s										1960s										1970s										1980s										1990s										2000s
	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Sports				XK120							XK140			XK150			E-type S1							E S2			E-type S3				XJ-S						XJ-S HE										XJS					XK8, XKR										XK
Saloon											Mark 1					Mark 2, 240, 340																																										X-Type
																				S-Type											XJ-C																									S-Type, S-Type R
																						420		XJ6 Ser I						XJ6 Ser II						XJ6 Ser III								XJ6 (XJ40)							XJ6			XJ8, XJR					XJ8, XJR
	Mk IV				Mk V			Mk VII				Mk VIII			Mk IX			Mk X				420G						XJ12		XJ12 S II						XJ12 Ser III													XJ12		XJ12
Supercar														XKSS																																		15	XJ220
Racing							C-Type			D-Type								E-Type				XJ13										XJ-C						XJR-5/6/7/8/9/10/12/14											C							R1/2/3/4/5
Corporate Ownership	Independent																					BMH		British Leyland															Independent					Ford