Jaguar XKSS Heaven

12 Jaguar XKSS together at Pebble Beach (click for bigger image)

Jaguar what, I hear you ask? The Jaguar XKSS is the roadgoing version of the legendary D-Type Jaguar and the precursor to the Jaguar even my mum knows –  the Jaguar E Type (or Jaguar XK-E if you’re on the other side of the Pond).

So what’s so special about the Jaguar XKSS, then? Rarity is its strongest claim in Jaguar history; just sixteen exist. And it’s drop-dead gorgeous – which is more or less a given with old Jags. So if you’re really lucky and you attend the very best car shows round the world you may come across a Jaguar XKSS. There is a slim chance you may see two at one show, but that is almost unheard of. What you will never see is more than a couple at a time. Until now.

This weekend was the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the organisers managed to bring together 12 of the 16 remaining cars in one place for the photo you see at the top (click it for a full size version). Which makes McLaren’s photo of 21 F1s earlier this year look like a poor effort with little more than 20% of all the F1s ever made on show. Pebble managed 64% of all the XKSS ever built. I know. The maths doesn’t work. 12 out of 16 is 75%. And thereby lies a story.

When Jaguar withdrew from racing in the mid ’50s it had 25 D-Type chassis left. The decision was taken to give the racing D-Types a passenger seat and door, a windscreen, basic chrome bumpers and a rag top and punt them out as roadgoing racers – the Jaguar XKSS. Unfortunately, on 12th February 1957, fire raged through Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory destroying nine of the D-Type Chassis destined to become XKSS, leaving just sixteen to sell.

Those sixteen cars finished up as Jaguar XKSS and weighed little more than the racing D-Type – just a smidge over 2,000lbs – and kept the 3.4 litre straight six from the D Type too, making the XKSS as close as you’ll ever get to a street-legal racing Jaguar.

Of the sixteen cars built we think all are still in existence. Six still live in the UK; seven have homes in the US; one lives in Canada and two in places unknown – at least to us.

To have managed to get twelve together is probably about as good as it will ever get.

By Cars UK