By Dave Abrahams
Warwick, England - Jaguar Classic is to re-create nine hand-built XKSS sports-cars that were destroyed when a disastrous fire swept through the Browns Lane works on the evening of 12 February 1957.
The XKSS ranks right up there with the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Porsche 550 as one of icons of the motoring world - and yet it was never meant to be.
The Jaguar works endurance racing team had already won the Le Mans 24 Hour twice with the all-conquering fin-tailed D-Type when Sir William Lyons decided to withdraw the factory team at the end of the 1956 season (Privately entered D-Types proved him wrong by taking first, second, third, fourth and sixth at Le Mans in 1957, but that's another story).
However, that left the competition department at Browns Lane with 25 (very expensive) 1957-spec D-Type endurance racing chassis in various stages of completion, which were now surplus to requirements.
So, on 14 January 1957, Lyons decided to convert them into road-going versions, for sale primarily in the United States where they would be eligible to compete in races for street-legal sports-cars.
Very few changes were made to the basic D-Type; the dry-sump, 3.4-litre twin-cam straight six endurance racing engine, which was good for a genuine 185kW, all-aluminium monocoque tub, independent suspension and disc brakes were left untouched.
The division between the driver and passenger's seats was removed, as was the distinctive tailfin, originally fitted to stabilise the cars on the flat-out Mulsanne straight. A second door was fitted on the left side of the body (the D-Type had only a driver's door) and a wrap-around windshield replaced the D-Type's Perspex fly-screen.
Little chromed quarter-bumpers were added at each corner, a styling cue that was to re-appear on the E-Type three years later, as well as clips and fittings for a rather claustrophobic mohair soft top.
There was no provision for a boot in the D-Type body, so a chromed luggage rack was bolted on to the rear deck and finally, bigger tail-light clusters, borrowed from the XK140 parts bin, were fitted to satisfy US safety requirements.
The completed D-Type roadster, by now named XKSS, weighed just 914kg and its performance was, by 1957 standards, electrifying. It would accelerate from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds, from 1-160 (the Imperial 'ton' - 100 miles per hour) in 13.5 seconds and run a standing quarter-mile in 14.1 seconds. Its top speed was 229km/h at a time when 160 was something to boast about and it became, not surprisingly, an instant cult car.
DISASTROUS FIRE
Then disaster struck. The Browns Lane fire destroyed not only nine of the 25 cars but also all the jigs needed to build them, effectively ending D-Type production for good.
In the aftermath of the fire, the 16 survivors were cleaned up and sold, mostly in the United States. One of them, finished in British Racing Green, went to Steve McQueen, who called it “the Green Rat” and drove it around the streets of Beverley Hills for many years.
Twelve of the 16 cars are still running but, sadly, they are now far too valuable to drive. The last one known to have changed hands was Dick Thompson's red XKD 563, which went for $1.95 million (then R13 million) at auction in Monterey, California as long ago as 2005. The Green Rat, which is now in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, is conservatively valued at $30 million (R465 million).
But now Jaguar Classic, building on the experience gained in the construction of the six 'continuation' lightweight racing E-Types, which used similar all-aluminium tubs, has decided to re-create the nine cars lost in the Browns Lane fire, exactly as they would have been completed then, down to the last detail.
Each one will be hand-built at Jaguar's new 'Experimental Shop' in Warwick, to the exact specifications as the first 16 made in 1957, with every aspect fully certified by Jaguar, for sale to a select group of collectors and enthusiasts.
The price, says Jaguar Classic, will be “be in excess of £1 million (R21.9 million)”. First deliveries of the 'continuation' XKSS will begin early in 2017.