A Jaguar car once owned by speed legend Donald Campbell is set to go under the hammer in June at a north Essex sale.

Sworders auctioneers of Stansted Mountfitchet near Stansted are expecting widespread interest for the Jaguar XK150 which was bought by the British speed record breaker in 1958 as his "regular runabout".

He received the car - finished in his favourite Cotswold Blue - from the Jaguar factory in Coventry in June 1958. 

Cotswold blue was Campbell’s livery for Bluebird - his land speed record-breaking car.

Campbell was the only person to hold both the land and water speed records. 

The Jaguar was used as his daily driver. There is a rumour he replaced the engine – using the 3.4-litre power unit for a speedboat, said Sworders.

The car is pictured in a period photograph at Coniston Water alongside the jet-powered hydroplane in which Campbell set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1967.East Anglian Daily Times: Donald Campbell sold the XK150 to fellow car enthusiast Michael Brooks who fitted it with a D-type cylinder head for racing.

Relatively little is known of the car’s history between 1964 and 1997 when it was acquired in a dilapidated state, said the auctioneers.

Restoration work was carried out by Norfolk Jaguar racing family Henry Burton and son Peter and the interior work was completed in 2001 by G & G Sergent.

The current owner, a keen Campbell enthusiast, purchased the car in 2013 from Chelmsford dealership J D Classics.

It has occasionally been shown at rallies and club events, it was featured in Jaguar Enthusiast magazine following the 2017 Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb that celebrated the life of Sir Donald Campbell with Campbell family members and other Campbell vehicles.

Magazine photos were taken in 1958 at a regatta held at Lake Bourget, Aix-les-Bains, in the Rhone region of the Alps in France.

Signatures on the glove compartment include Tonia Campbell - widow and third wife of Donald Campbell, daughter Gina Campbell and nephew Don Wales.