The story of the Jaguar XKSS began following Jaguar’s three successive Le Mans victories in 1955, 1956 and 1957 with the all-conquering D-type.
After the hat-trick of wins, Sir Williams Lyons took the decision on 14 January 1957 to convert the remaining 25 D-types into road-going versions with several external modifications – creating the world’s first super car.
These modifications included the addition of a new higher windscreen, an extra door on the passenger side, taking away the divider between driver and passenger and the removal of the famous fin behind the driver’s seat.
The original cars were earmarked for export to the USA, however, just 16 were completed before a fire disaster struck at the company’s Browns Lane factory. Now 59 years later, Jaguar is going to build the nine ‘lost’ XKSS sports cars for a select group of collectors and customers.
The expertise gained during the construction of the Lightweight E-type project will be transferred to the construction of these nine ultra-exclusive continuations. Each one will be hand-built at Jaguar’s new ‘Experimental Shop’ in Warwick. Every car will be constructed to the same specifications as those first 16 made in 1957.
The price for each model will be in excess of £1 million (RM5.6 million) and the first deliveries of the new continuation Jaguar XKSS will commence in early 2017.
