Video: The racing Jaguar you’ve never heard of

27th February 2025

Russell Campbell

Amongst the XK120s, C-Types and D-Types on the grid at the 81st Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport, there lurked a Jaguar rarer than them all – the XK120 Mistral.

Built by a man who wanted to race a C-Type Jaguar but couldn’t get his hands on one, the car is based on a modified XK120 chassis – chopped to accommodate the shorter fibreglass Mistral body – but with a C-Type engine providing the punch. The result was a car lighter than the XK120 with the power to compete with Le Mans racers like the C-Type.

It’s appearance in 2024’s Peter Collins Trophy marked the Mistral’s first proper outing since 1955, and it showed us precisely what it was built for: four-wheel drifting around the Goodwood Motor Circuit with the familiar beating roar of a Jaguar straight-six as a backing track, chasing the tails of the company's more expensive C-Types.

“Driving a D-Type, I’d be expected to be starting from nearer the front of the grid and looking to battle for the win, which I am not going to do with this [the Mistral], but I’m just looking forward to having a really good race,” said owner Gary Pearson, told the story of his car before it headed out on the track. Fighting until the finish line with Nigel Webb’s C-Type, it certainly put on a show.