D-Type Jaguar Driving Experience with Mithril Racing.

It's a crisp spring morning and I'm on my way to Mithril Racing at Goodwood to drive their D-Type Jaguar. Naturally any chance to drive this kind of car is met with much excitement and it's a good job I'm not driving as I would probably be driving far to quickly. 

We arrive in good time and are welcomed by the Mithril Racing staff who are friendly and knowledgable about all of the cars. We have a cup of tea and wait for the other drivers to arrive while the car is collected from where it is kept. When it arrives it looks stunning and sounds great. We are given a quick talk and we are taken to the cars we will be driving. The doors on the D-Type are tiny and open upwards. To climb in you raise your leg over a high sill onto the seat position your legs either side of the steering wheel and lower your legs to find the pedals. Once in I am greeted with a large and comfortable leather seat. My guide then gets in and hand me the key. My instructions are simple: put the key in the ignition, turn the key and press the starter button. I follow the instructions and when the car fires up I am greeted with a lovely rasp of a twin cam straight six engine. I am then asked to rev the engine a few times and then let the car idle for a couple of minutes while the other drivers get to grips with their cars. While this is going on, I soak up the view I have, the wooden steering wheel, the dashboard, the little windscreen and the sound from the straight six engine I then chat with the man from Milthril about a few things. He will give me hand signals to speed up and slow down. When he pushes his hands away from his body I speed up, when he does the reverse this means slow down. This was first used by Stirling Moss's co driver Dennis Jenkinson during the 1955 Mille Miglia. There are yellow cones around the track. These are placed at the apex of the corner and give the best point of the corner to aim at. Finally, he mentions that the D-Type has a four speed manual Gearbox and that once into fourth gear, the only place I will need to change gear is at the chicane. We are then given the clear to move off and get onto the track. At first steering the car at a slow speed is heavy going but gets easier the faster you go. My guide gives the all clear and it's foot down, up the gears. It's clear from the off that this car is fast and it's really does pick up quickly. It's light and the engine produces 300+ BHP. As we near Madwick corner the slow down signal is given so a light touch on the brakes and into the corner we go. With the yellow cones spotted, I steer toward the apex. No tyre squeal and not much body roll as we go through the corner.

It's then back on the power towards Fordwater and down towards St Mary's. This is more of a curve than a corner building up speed before breaking into Lavant corner.

 It's then back on the power for on the Lavant straight, which has a slight bend taken at full speed that is on a slight hill. On the first lap I reach roughly 85 before breaking and turning into Woodcote corner. A brief acceleration before braking and changing down to third gear for the chicane and we find ourselves back on the start\finish straight and flying towards the second lap.

While driving the D-Type. It becomes clear that this is a very easy car to drive, during the second lap, I find the corners better and get better on the exits. On the third lap again my cornering is better still and I reach 100 mph on the Lavant straight. The improvements in speed are down to increasing confidence as time goes on. The gear change is also very good. I have driven modern cars with a far clunkier change. The clutch is a little heavy but it does not feel like I have been to the gym. I know that I am not pushing the car anywhere near its capacity but you still get the feel of how far you could push it. Given a Le Mans gear ratio, the top speed of one of these is near 185 mph. When cornering the suspension does not feel like a car that is now 60 years old. I have driven those that do.

At the end of the third lap, it's time to pull into the paddock and hand the car back. Driving the D-Type has been a magical experience and one that will stay with me. 

If you do wind up taking the D-Type for a spin, I recommend that you take some goggles or sunglasses as the windscreen is very low and being hit by the wind at high speed could slow your drive down. If you ware glasses, they will be fine.

If you like Classic cars, you will find it hard to beat the ambience of going to Goodwood and being able to drive around the same track as Moss, Fangio, Stewart and Clark amongst others driving similar cars is a chance not to be missed.