David Murray founded the team to provide a competitive Scottish presence at the highest level of international motorsport. From the outset, Ecurie Ecosse pursued an ambitious programme that extended beyond sports car racing. The team entered four Formula One World Championship Grands Prix across three seasons: Murray himself drove a Cooper T20 at the 1952 British Grand Prix, retiring with engine trouble; in 1953 the team entered Jimmy Stewart in a Cooper T20 and Ian Stewart in a Connaught A Type at the British Grand Prix, neither finishing; and in 1954 Leslie Thorne drove the Connaught at the British Grand Prix, completing the race but finishing twelve laps behind the leaders. After this, Ecurie Ecosse concentrated on sports car events.
The team's most celebrated chapter came in the mid-1950s with the Jaguar D-Type, then the dominant prototype at Le Mans. At the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson drove an Ecurie Ecosse D-Type to outright victory. The following year the team achieved something remarkable even by Le Mans standards: a privateer 1-2 finish. Flockhart, co-driving this time with Ivor Bueb, won again, while a second Ecurie Ecosse D-Type crewed by Sanderson and John Lawrence finished second. It was an extraordinary result for an independent team against the factory programmes of the era.
Subsequent Le Mans efforts were less successful. The 1958 race saw both D-Types retire with engine failures within a few laps of the start. The team returned in 1959 with a D-Type and a newly acquired Tojeiro-Jaguar, but neither car finished. In 1960 the much-modified D-Type survived until the 168th lap before a broken crankshaft ended its race, while a Cooper T49 Monaco did not make the start. Accidents eliminated both entries in 1961. In 1962 a Tojeiro EE retired with gearbox problems — the last Le Mans appearance by the original Ecurie Ecosse team. Financial difficulties and the self-imposed tax exile of founder David Murray had effectively ended the team's competitive era by the mid-1960s.
Ecurie Ecosse attracted a remarkable roster of talent over its years of operation. Among the drivers who raced for the team were David Murray, Jimmy Stewart and his younger brother Jackie Stewart (three-time Formula One World Champion), Ron Flockhart, Ninian Sanderson, Ivor Bueb, Masten Gregory, Roy Salvadori, Jack Fairman, Jim Clark, Innes Ireland, John Lawrence, Tom Walkinshaw, and Leslie Thorne.
The team also contested the European Formula Two Championship from 1969 to 1971, campaigning Brabham and March machinery with drivers including Graham Birrell, Richard Attwood, Gerry Birrell, and Tom Walkinshaw, though without major results.
The original team ceased racing in 1971. In the 1980s, enthusiast and driver Hugh McCaig revived the Ecurie Ecosse name and returned to competition. The revived team won the C2 class of the World Sportscar Championship in 1986, having been runners-up the previous year. Ecurie Ecosse also competed in the British Touring Car Championship with Vauxhall Cavaliers in 1992 and 1993, including a win at Thruxton in 1993 for David Leslie.
Hugh McCaig brought the name back again in 2011, when four young drivers — Alasdair McCaig, Andrew Smith, Joe Twyman, and Oliver Bryant — entered an Aston Martin DBRS9 in the GT3 class at the 24 Hours of Spa with the assistance of Barwell Motorsport. A further revival came in 2017–2018 through a partnership with Nielsen Racing.
In 2025-26, to mark the 70th anniversary of the team's first Le Mans victory, Ecurie Ecosse returned to competition through a collaboration with Blackthorn in the Asian Le Mans Series, racing an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo piloted by Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli, and Kobe Pauwels.
A significant piece of Ecurie Ecosse's heritage is its original double-deck car transporter, designed by Selby Howgate and built by coachbuilders Alexander of Falkirk on a Commer chassis, powered by a Commer TS3 three-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine. Capable of carrying three cars with workshop facilities, the transporter became an iconic symbol of the team. The entire Ecurie Ecosse collection assembled by enthusiast Dick Skipworth — comprising Jaguar XK120, C-Type and D-Type, Tojeiro-Jaguar, Cooper-Climax Monaco, Le Mans Austin-Healey Sprite, Tojeiro EE-Buick Coupe, and the transporter — was sold at Bonhams auction in London on 5 December 2013, realising a total of £8.8 million. The transporter alone sold for a world-record £1.8 million.
Ecurie Ecosse remains the most successful Scottish privateer team in Le Mans history. The consecutive victories of 1956 and 1957, achieved without factory backing, placed the team alongside the greatest independent operations the race has ever seen. The distinctive flag blue cars and the iconic transporter have made Ecurie Ecosse one of the most recognizable presences in the heritage of endurance motorsport.