Historic roadgoing race cars are a special breed, whether they were legalized within a millimeter of the winning track version or never all that legal to begin with. The 1957 Jaguar XKSS belongs to the first type?it?s basically a D-type racer minus the fin. And this one here is essentially perfect; it?s also entirely brand-new.
The Jaguar Classic division of Jaguar Land Rover Classic, the factory?s restoration and parts-fabrication workshop, spent the past year and a half building this XKSS from scratch, because this was an old flame worth resurrecting. A total of 25 XKSS roadsters would have been built in 1957, the year after the legendary D-type retired from a successful three-season career, but a fire at the Browns Lane assembly plant destroyed nine. For decades, that was the end of the story. But in March, Jaguar pulled the nine missing serial numbers and asked major Jaguar collectors if they?d pay more than 1 million pounds for each one. Considering that a Le Mans?winning original 1955 D-type just sold for nearly $22 million at Pebble Beach this past summer, a ground-up re-creation for less than a tenth of that price is a steal. And then Brexit happened, so any non-U.K. depositors can now buy a restored E-type to go with it.
The XKSS is not a restomod, a replica, or the sort of thing small shops create with fresh, factory-supplied bodies (like the 1964.5?1966 Mustang steel body you can order from Ford). It?s Jaguar completing the originally intended production run, b...