The latest news from the organisers of this year’s British Classic Car Meeting (BCCM) in St. Moritz, due to take place from 8-10 July, is the inclusion of the 23rd (of 53) Jaguar C-types to be built: chassis no. XKC 023.

The discovery of this car as a dusty barn-find in 1997 caught the attention of Jaguar enthusiasts worldwide. It was American Jaguar expert Terry Larson who made the discovery, in a barn in Northern California.

Sold to California in 1952, the 23rd C-type was raced by Hollywood film producer Jack Douglas in local events from 1953 onwards. The red Jaguar also made a frequent appearance in films (often with starlet Mitzi Gaynor). In 1955, Douglas rolled the ‘C’ into the crash barriers during the Torrey Pines race in Southern California, resulting in considerable damage to the body of the C-type.

While the dented car was being repaired, Douglas bought himself a D-type and the C was soon relegated to a corner of his garage. It did not, however, stay there for long and Douglas’s race mechanic Cesar Critchlow bought the C-type from him for $2000. Critchlow was not only a competent grease monkey, but was also considered to be a promising driver. In his very first race with the C-type in Santa Barbara, he beat his mentor Douglas.

In the years that followed, the C-type was increasingly forced into the role of an ageing star with a famous family name. Although Critchlow had a Devin glassfibre body fitted to the sound chassis of the C-type, it was no longer realistic to cherish hopes of further racing success. Things went quiet for ‘our’ number 23. Critchlow was drafted into the army for two years and the vehicle disappeared under a dusty tarpaulin. Upon his return, Critchlow had lost his passion for Jaguars. He exchanged the C-type for a different vehicle from his employer at the time, Horvath Motors – a small sportscar dealership in Costa Mesa that no longer exists. This exchange was quickly followed by a second: in 1961, Horvath Motors needed a new façade for its building and paid the painting firm with the C-type. A year later, the painter’s ageing pick-up needed some work doing to its engine, and a third exchange took place. Jaguar enthusiast Frank Schierenbeck accepted the C-type as payment for the rebuild of the V8 pick-up truck in 1962.

About 10 years later, Schierenbeck’s young nephew took a liking to the C-type. When Schierenbeck prohibited him from using the car, the nephew, in a rage, disassembled it. And that is why, for decades, the vehicle was the only one of the 53 C-types that remained unaccounted for: it was stored in boxes on a ranch near Oroville in Northern California.

In 1986, well-known Jaguar expert Terry Larson discovered that Schierenbeck owned a C-type. Larson had been looking for a vehicle of this kind for his friend Christian C. Jenny for some time. However, it took more than 10 years for Schierenbeck to agree to the sale – and it was not until 1997 that Larson and Jenny were able to assemble much more from the scattered parts than they had imagined. It was virtually complete: the tubular frame, mounting brackets, transmission, pedals, axles, footwells, floor parts, instruments, struts, a complete engine and – most importantly – the chassis number were all there. All that was missing were the parts of the original body that had been replaced by the Devin glassfibre body.

So the search for the missing body parts started at the same time as the reconstruction of the car. And Larson found what he was looking for: four decades previously, the parts had not simply been discarded, but had remained at Horvath Motors and were used in a replica many years later. This replica had been considered ‘genuine’ based on the same XKC 023 chassis number. However, when it was made public that the genuine car had reappeared, the owner of the replica declared himself prepared to sell. Larson and his friend jumped at the chance. All the parts that came from the original were removed and fitted to the genuine number 23. Repainted in its original Carmen Red colour, the XKC 023 took to the road again after 26 years in November 2000.

In May 2001, the vehicle took part in the Mille Miglia retrospective and, honoured with an FIA Heritage Certificate, the car has since participated in various classic car events. The BCCM in St. Moritz will continue this tradition: for more details about the meeting, see www.bccm-stmoritz.ch.

Text: Classic Driver
Photos: bccm-stmoritz.ch