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The Jaguar E-Type is often celebrated as one of the most stunning cars in history, yet it pales in comparison to the breathtaking XKSS.
If you share this sentiment, a staggering $17 million could secure one of the 16 original XKSS cars ever produced at a Gooding & Company auction on March 10 at the Amelia Island Concours in Florida. And if another enthusiast agrees wholeheartedly, bidding could exceed the $21.8 million record set for a 1955 Jaguar D-Type at last summer’s Monterey auction—the highest price ever paid for a Jaguar or any British car.
The D-Type racer enjoyed unparalleled success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, achieving three consecutive overall victories from 1955 to 1957. However, during the peak of the D-Type’s success, Jaguar decided to take a break from racing to focus on manufacturing production cars, which included the ultra-rare XKSS, a roadgoing sports variant of the D-Type. Although Jaguar initially planned to produce 25 XKSS models, only 16 were completed before a fire at the Browns Lane factory in February 1957 destroyed nine unfinished chassis.
The star of the Amelia Island event is chassis number 716. With a significant market value, this car also commemorates the 60th anniversary of the D-Type’s last Le Mans victory. Initially delivered to Montreal, the XKSS secured multiple wins in Canadian sports-car competitions between 1957 and 1961. It boasts a 262-horsepower, 3.4-liter inline six engine, which was noted by Road and Track at the time for achieving a top speed of 149 mph.
“That was quite impressive for 1957,” remarked Nathan Hoyt, a spokesman for Jaguar. “This car is entirely analog; it features no power steering or power brakes, just a lap belt inside.”
Over the years, the Amelia Island XKSS changed ownership several times and has been with its current proprietor for two decades. Following a comprehensive restoration by the UK-based Jaguar specialist, Pearsons Engineers, the XKSS made its debut at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2010, joining a class that reunited 12 of the original 16 vehicles, including the one previously owned by actor Steve McQueen, now part of the Petersen Automotive Museum’s collection. The last XKSS to be auctioned publicly was in 2005, when chassis number 704 sold for $1.9 million at Pebble Beach. This figure pales in comparison to today’s estimated auction bid of $16 to $18 million.
In an exciting development, nine fortunate buyers will soon acquire their own perfect replicas of history. For a price of $1.3 million, in addition to the cost of spare wheels and other replacement parts, Jaguar’s Browns Lane Heritage Workshop will create modern versions of the nine unfinished XKSS vehicles based strictly on original specifications and employing traditional methods. The first of these cars are set to be delivered in spring or early summer, and all are already accounted for. These latest “continuation cars” will remain true to their historical roots without any modern updates—aside from a leak-resistant neoprene fuel bladder instead of a solid tank.
“It’s essentially just a bag of fuel behind the driver,” Hoyt explained.
Due to various factors, Hoyt noted that the revived XKSS vehicles are not technically road-legal in the U.S., where the majority of the nine cars are headed.
“Although we are assigning 1957 VIN numbers, they are classified as new cars, making it akin to trying to certify a ’57 Chevy against today’s emissions and crash standards,” Hoyt added.
Two years ago, I had the privilege of touring the Browns Lane workshop and driving Jaguar’s first continuation car on the track—a stunningly handbuilt Lightweight E-Type—one of the six “missing” racers whose serial numbers were recorded in a leather-bound ledger in 1963 but never manufactured. With the addition of six new cars, there are now eleven that you’d find hard to distinguish from the originals.
Jaguar asserts that these factory-built continuation vehicles, despite their original yet unfulfilled VIN numbers, are not simple replicas but should be regarded as authentic—enabling them to participate in prestigious vintage races from Monterey to Goodwood, England. Kev Riches, who began as an intern at Jaguar in 1974 and now leads the Heritage Department, insists that a replica is only a reproduction of someone else’s design: “We haven’t copied anything from anyone else, which is why this is not a replica.”
In our humble opinion, you may label these time-capsule vehicles as you wish, as long as you recognize their beauty.
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