IN THIS FEATURE Successful racing heritage Definitive Jaguar racing legend Blasting up the hill Destroying the opposition Noisiest car of the festival The quickest touring car of its generation A rare privilege

Make no mistake, this car is fast: it may be nearly 50 years old but there's barely a car on the road today that'll stay with it in a straight line. With 300bhp powering a lot less than a tonne of car, it blasts up the hill at an astonishing rate, its engine feeling like it's just getting into its stride as the 5800rpm rev-limit appears. The gearbox is desperately slow by the standards of modern racers but it's wonderfully precise: no chance of a missed shift here.

You don't corner a D-type like you would a modern road car. Instead of staying within the broad limits of the tyres' grip, the trick is to break the back of the car loose as you turn into the corner, usually achieved by turning in on a trailing throttle, and then jumping quickly back on the gas to powerslide it through, adjusting your attitude to the corner with steering and throttle in equal measure. It sounds complicated but, in a D-type, it is entirely natural and, indeed, the way it is designed to work. It also makes you look vaguely heroic which, emphatically, I am not.

Rear fin for speed stability

Despite being designed for the long haul, the D-type proves the perfect device for the Goodwood hill - it's neither too wide nor too fast, its manners are impeccable and the looks it draws from the crowds unforgettable. As I made my way back down the hill, gently blipping the throttle, I could not conceive how one could have had more fun on that sinuous strip of tarmac. Little did I know it, but I was about to find out.