At the end of the 1956 racing season, Jaguar pulled out of factory competition, but faced a problem: there were still a handful of completed and partially completed Jaguar D-Type racing cars that were sitting, unsold, at the Browns Lane factory. Sir William Lyons, who was looking for a way to recoup the investment made upon these cars, converted them to road-going specifications, adding ornamentation, a windshield and side glass, a fabric top, bumpers, and more. Looking to take advantage of the American demand for lightweight, high-performance European sports cars, the new creations were dubbed XKSS and sixteen were sold before a fire at the factory on February 12th, 1957 destroyed the remaining nine slated for production.
Nearly sixty years later, Jaguar has decided to finish out the production run by building the last nine cars to fulfill the order. These cars will be built by Jaguar Classic (Jaguar’s in-house restoration shop) and will be built to the original 1957 specifications, so the 250 horsepower XK6 inline-six and the four-speed manual transmission will be there. The only thing that potential owners can choose is the color, from five choices: Old English White, British Racing Green, black, red or gray. And you better bring deep pockets, and in a hurry: At $1.5 million apiece, with five already sold, they won’t last long…partially due to the stratospheric prices of original production versions, which have seen $10 million bids before. But Jaguar won’t sell just anyone an XKSS: the company is vetting prospective owners to make sure that the cars appear at vintage races, gatherings and other locations where the public can see them as well.
We might need a winning Powerball ticket to consider, but to get a 100% accurate 1950s Jaguar with zero miles on the clock? If we had the cash, we’d be hard-pressed to not at least look into it…
(Courtesy: Autoblog)
For £1.5 million I’d expect a tidier hood stowage as it looks like somebody’s just draped an old blanket over the rear of the car!
But its still drop-dead gorgeous though strangely out dated – surely power steering, electronic injection and ignition and a 5-speed gearbox would make it easier to drive in today’s traffic. But there again that doesn’t matter if its going to be locked in a climate controlled garage for years as it increases in value which I reckon will happen to most of them,
Cars this good are meant to be driven and enjoyed no matter what their value!
good enough for Steve McQueen, good enough for me (if funding no object)