French for "Team Scotland", Ecurie Ecosse was a private motor racing team founded in 1952 by Edinburgh businessman and racing driver David Murray, and mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson. Its most notable achievement was winning both the 1956 and the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race! The Ecurie Ecosse cars were always distinctive in their metallic Scottish Flag Blue livery.
In the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson were the winning drivers in a Jaguar D-Type for Ecurie Ecosse. Flockhart won again with a D-Type in the 1957 event, partnered this time with Ivor Bueb. The team's second D-Type, driven by Sanderson and his new partner John Lawrence, finished second. Not only is a privateer 1-2 finish an exceptional thing, but consecutive Le Mans victories is an achievement of colossal proportions!
The 12 Hours of Reims car, presented here, was again superbly finished in beautiful Scottish Flag Blue, metallic, wearing race No. 23. An original monoposto design windscreen version of the D-type, having no vertical fin -- as was the case for most of the "private customer" Jaguar D-types produced. The drivers, Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart, pedal to the metal, pushed their Coventry-born blue cat to an impressive 4th place!
The Scottish Flag, also known as The Saltire, or The St. Andrews Cross, required special permission of use by The Royal Banner of Scotland's Lion Rampant. The Ecurie Ecosse shield, which featured The Saltire design, had no definite permission of use. Some insider rumors had it that Ecurie Ecosse used to prepare their cars without applying their shield on the flanks of their cars. As soon as they crossed the border to France, the first thing they did was to proudly place the team shield on their racing cars! Exoto XS item RLG88004C is the UK version, and item RLG88004B is the full-fledged (non-UK) racing variant!
