On display this month at the Petersen Museum in LA is the first Jaguar XKSS to be built in 60 years. It’s one of 10 being created for purchase in 2017. Baroque Ground finds out all the details
Sixty years ago, the Jaguar XKSS was making waves in the motor industry. And it’s doing it again! Yes, a stunning XKSS has just been built, and it was displayed at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles this month. Finished in Sherwood Green paint, this exquisite vehicle is the first of 10 cars that will be created by the Jaguar Classic Engineering team. The other nine will be sold in 2017 to lucky purchasers from around the world.
This magnificent Jaguar model is known as the first super car in the world. It was originally created by Jaguar as the road version of the Le Mans winning D-type Jag, which was built between 1954 and 1956. The following year, nine partially completed D types that were to be exported to the US were destroyed in a fire at Jaguar’s factory in Browns Lane, in the UK Midlands. As a result, only 16 examples of that particular model survived.
Earlier in 2016, Jaguar announced that its Classic division would be recreating the nine ‘lost’ XKSS sports super cars for a very exclusive group of customers and collectors around the world. The vehicle that was on display in Los Angeles is the result of 18 months of research, and will be used the blueprint for nine more vehicles.
Apparently, this specific model is one of the most important vehicles in Jaguar’s long history. The nine cars being meticulously created will be identical to those manufactured in the period 1954 to 1956 in every way. The new vehicles will literally be identical to their predecessors.
This is not the first time that Jaguar has undertaken a project of this kind. In 2014, the British manufacturer recreated six lightweight E-type Jags that were never made as planned in the period 1963/1964. This project assisted the team in engineering cars that with identical specifications to vehicles made earlier in Jaguar’s history, and this knowledge is what is assisting them in recreating the Jaguar XKSS cars.
The nine 2017 vehicles are being created by taking original XKSS models and laser scanning them, disassembling them and studying every single part of them to ensure the utmost accuracy. New engines have been built using the spec’s of the originals. These vehicles will boast brand new chassis numbers from the XKSS chassis log, and each will have a price tag of approximately $1.4 million. Not surprisingly, all nine have already been sold.
The original XKSS vehicles were legendary, known as the fastest vehicles in the world, as well as the most beautiful British specimens ever made. It’s likely that these nine hand-built specimens are going to be as revolutionary as their predecessors.