Chassis Number: XKSS77521
There are few modern sports cars around which legends gather more thickly than the Jaguar XKSS. Following the company’s withdrawal from racing after the 1956 season, a number of both completed and incomplete D-types remained in factory stock and unsold. The decision was made to convert these cars to road-going specification, for sale to the wanting American market. Bodywork was modified, with the removal of the divider between the seats and the large tail fin, as well as the addition of a passenger’s door, a full-width windshield with chromed frame, side screens in both driver’s and passenger’s doors, chromed bumperettes and a simple folding top. Otherwise the XKSS was a D-type, barely, slightly tamed — a wolf in another wolf’s clothing.
After only 16 D-types had been completed to XKSS specification, the remaining nine chassis were destroyed in a fire that swept through Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory. Since the intention had been only to build the model until the remaining D-type stock was used up, the fire meant that the XKSS came to an end.
Because the XKSS is so fiercely sought after, in March 2016 Jaguar announced that it would complete the original intended production run of 25 cars by finally building the nine XKSS lost to the Browns Lane fire. The original run of nine XKSS produced in 2017 sold out virtually upon introduction. It speaks to the quality of these cars that, like the 16 built in 1957, they are seldom ever offered for sale by their owners. In fact, the offering of this example is believed to be the first time that one has been offered at public auction, marking an extremely rare opportunity and special occasion for a potential buyer.
