The Little Red Jag that Captured Hearts

Please note some of these answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

THIS YEAR AT the Pebble Beach Concours, there were the usual suspects, of course. On the fabled lawn, onlookers relished Ferraris whose restoration cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, glittering Phantoms, and unrestored gems alike. But one specific car drew its own special crowd of onlookers — the 1955 Jaguar D-type XKD 522. The reason? Its restorer has been faithfully documenting the painstakingly meticulous restoration process since acquiring the racecar, and he has become a niche hit — a car lover’s Instagram for car lovers to follow.

Luckily, in the rush of showing his prized car at Pebble, I was able to steal Jeremy McChesney, the brains behind my favorite Instagram account @xkd_522 for a Q & A. And if you haven’t checked out his page yet, you’re in for a treat.

Tell me about how you acquired this car — do you collect other cars? Did you grow up with cars?

I grew up loving cars, but I have a particular affinity for Jaguars. My aunt actually raced 120 Jags at Daytona Beach in the 1950s, so they were always a car I had on my radar, and I’ve been told that I talked about owning one when I was a little kid. But all of that really changed when I was fourteen and my Dad brought home a red E-type Coupe. He may as well have brought home a supermodel. I couldn’t think about schoolwork, homework, or anything. I was hooked.

I continued learning how to work with my hands and did a lot of construction work, which led me to commercial real estate after college. I still had the itch to build my own car, so I started building a Replica C-type. I met a guy at a swap meet who had real Jags and parts. His name was Tom Groskritz and we became instant friends — he was as obsessed with the same things as I was.

Was it always the D-type that you loved?

When I was a kid in the fifth grade, I wrote a story about having a D-type. The prospect of owning one, or restoring one, was a fantasy only available in dreams. Tom left me his D-type (XKD 522) when he passed away in 2021, I think because he knew I was going to do everything I could to get it right.

Tell me about the restoration process and the road to Pebble.

Pebble was the timeline, but the goal was always to make the very best D-type in the world in all measures and aspects, to the clamps, hoses and everything. I wanted it all to be exactly as Jaguar made it. It really translated to a fantastic car, which was a promise I made to Tom. I said to my fourteen-year-old son, “Imagine having the world’s greatest LEGO kit and you get to put it together.”

Something not a lot of people know is that the posts on my Instagram were in real time. I received the aluminum body four months ago, in mid-April, and got right to work. The finishing touches, or last things I did, were the beautiful air box that goes on the car and the Webers. We were sanding and polishing it on the racetrack on Saturday before the show on Sunday. Valentina Trentini hand painted the Pegasus on the car on Saturday at Laguna Seca.

What surprised you about this process?

The thing that surprised me was how advanced engineering was for 1955. The packaging is amazing — they fit everything in such a compact way: the four-wheel disc brakes, the way the engine sits to one side, and you have the oil sump on the other — it’s crazy. These pipe-smoking Brits did this without computer aided design, using the materials from war surplus. You can really tell that aircraft engineers were working on it. I got in touch with Crosthwaite & Gardiner in the UK and got them to build a lock nut that hadn’t been produced since the 1940s. That was also so cool!

If we’re talking nuts and bolts, let’s talk paint, something that sometimes falls to the wayside with race cars. What was your approach?

I am a big proponent of authenticity to the max, but as you know, it can be hard to settle the enamel vs. lacquer paint debate. But this car wasn’t so hard. We knew it was glossy in period because this was the 1955 LA Auto Show Car, and we have pictures of how glossy it was. It was displayed in the showroom to sell other Jags, so it had to be pretty shiny. These cars were gorgeous — not flat or dull in period. It’s like Greek statues — they weren’t white, they were painted — now we think these cars are dull, but they weren’t dull when they were new!

What was the most exciting moment or milestone in the restoration?

I could point to a thousand things that I was really tickled with. It was the humility I felt when I could put one of these cars back together again. Somehow the universe had chosen me to be able to do this. I got this car in bare metal 4 months ago, and I’ve been working 12 hours a day every day for this. To not lose that interest and drive, you have to be so interested. I was rewarded every day, especially finding others who shared the excitement.

Ok, we know about the restoration process, but what about the archival process? Linkage readers are going to lose their mind when they see all the original documents and pictures you have!

Some were passed down, and there’s more to it that I can’t share just yet. You’ll have to stay tuned. Bill Brooklidge, who owns XKD 531, the other 1955 D-type and I bought lots of old magazines and racing programs from the 50s and 60s and just did a grassroots dig to pair records with photographs. Photographs were the key here — especially color ones of the car in the period. Then you can find unique differences between this car and others that were built. Research (or lack of it) can be the one thing that really lets down restorations.

Ok, I’m almost done. You probably haven’t relaxed since April. Tell me about building your community on Instagram and what’s next for you and the car!

True! I decided to do this Instagram Channel because I am so interested in the little details and hoped there would be other nerds out there. It starts at the very beginning of the car’s life with all the racing photos and then details the restoration. I am so pleased with the community it has fostered — the number of people who have come up to me and become friends. It’s nice to have a place where we are not being haughty or gatekeeping, both with ownership and restoration. I believe in complete and utter honesty and that we need younger people to be excited about these cars! We don’t get that by hiding them from the world!

As for what’s next, a few more shows and hopefully Goodwood. It’s such a stunning car to see in person, since most competition Jags are British Racing Green and kind of moody. This D-type hasn’t been seen since 1964, and isn’t that what custodianship is all about? I can’t say too much, but there’s more here. Stay tuned.

You can check out the journey of The Little Red D-type as @xkd_522 on Instagram.

About The Author