LEGENDARY Scottish motor racing marque Ecurie Ecosse is bringing back to life the famed Jaguar C-Type sports car with a batch of models to honour the originals.

The team raced seven C-Types in the 1950s including wins at the Le Mans 24 hour race and describes the new models as ‘sister ships' to its racers.

To be built in Coventry the new C-Types are faithfully designed using thin-gauge aluminium alloy and mounted to a steel spaceframe chassis, but wider and stiffer than before.

The Jaguar straight-six XK engine remains too, although capacity has been increased to 4.2-litres and fuel injection fitted to bring power up to 300bhp.

The suspension and disc brakes have been uprated to cope with the additional performance and a five-speed gearbox added to maximise acceleration and top speed.

Inside, there are hand-crafted aluminium bucket seats clothed in supple blue leather by Crest, hand-airbrushed Ecurie Ecosse shields on the car's flanks, and Tag Heuer ‘Master Time' stopwatches on the dashboard.

No price has been quoted but the new C-Types are expected to cost more than £200,000 each. The first car is complete and available for viewing and test drive at the Hofmann's dealership in Henley-on-Thames.

Current Ecurie Ecosse patron Alasdair McCaig said: "How better to celebrate the historic success of the Ecurie Ecosse C-types than to manufacture a batch of cars in their honour?

"The seven priceless chassis raced in period still exist today, coveted by their lucky owners, occasionally seeing the light of day for race or concours events. We are paying homage to these cars by creating a numbered sister car to each one. Meticulous in their detail, like their forebears, hand-built in Coventry and tuned by Ecurie Ecosse technicians."

Ecurie Ecosse was revived in 2011 and has since specialised in building high performance models.

The Ecurie Ecosse C-Type has rapid performance of 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds and a maximum speed of 156mph with a kerbweight of just 998 kilos.