The C-type was an insurance write-off which he rebuilt. Rather him than me......We've had the car on here before when it was one of Woodinsight's puzzles showing the front row of a grid at Gnoo Blas.
Slightly OT, but I was at the old Prowess Racing premises in Windlesham once, many years ago, and Hugo Spowers was showing me round and pointed at a pile of scrap behind a workshop and told me it was Frank Gardner's old XK120. Mind you, it was GRP so it wouldn't have rusted, but many chassis components were lying there completely open to the elements. I've never found out whether Frank did indeed race one when he first came to the UK, or whether this was BS.