FOR SALE: Jaguar classic sportscar, 1958, Cotswold blue, excellent condition, previous owners include famous speed legend.
A Jaguar XK150 owned by Donald Campbell is being sold at auction in Stansted this summer.
Campbell – who remains the only person to set world speed records on land (403.1 mph) and water (276.33 mph) in the same year (1964) – bought the 66-year-old classic sportscar as his regular runabout.
It is expected to fetch more than £150,000 as part of a stand-alone auction of classic cars at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers on June 18.
Campbell received his fixed head coupé from the Jaguar factory in Coventry in June 1958. It was one of 4,445 of this model made between 1957 and 1961.
It was finished in his favourite Cotswold blue – the livery of his Bluebird K7, the jet-powered hydroplane in which he set seven world water speed records between July 1955 and New Year’s Eve 1964 – with grey upholstery, and came with numerous special factory options.
It was used as his daily driver, although there is a rumour he replaced the engine – and used the 3.4-litre power unit for a speedboat!
The original number plate, DC 7, was retained by Campbell but the car occasionally displays it for historical reasons.
Campbell sold the car to fellow enthusiast Michael Brooks, who fitted it with a D-type cylinder head for racing, with some success.
Relatively little is known of the car’s history between 1964 and 1997, when it was acquired in a dilapidated state.
The restoration work was carried out by the Norfolk Jaguar racing family of Henry Burton and his son Peter, and the interior work was completed in 2001 by G & G Sergent.
The current owner, an ardent Campbell enthusiast, bought the car in 2013 from Chelmsford dealership J D Classics.
Occasionally shown at rallies and club events, it was featured in Jaguar Enthusiast magazine following the 2017 Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb that celebrated the life of Sir Donald, with Campbell family members and other Campbell vehicles.
Campbell died in January 1967 during another record attempt at Coniston Water in the Lake District. He was 45. His body was not recovered until May 2001.
Campbell was intensely superstitious, hating the colour green, the number 13 and believing nothing good ever happened on a Friday.
His father Sir Malcolm Campbell held 13 world speed records in the 1920s and 1930s in the Bluebird cars and boats.
The Jaguar XK150’s full history is confirmed by a Jaguar Daimler Heritage Certificate.
Interested parties can bid online at www.sworder.co.uk, in person, via phone or leave a commission bid.