Rare ’57 Jaguar set to draw a ‘feeding frenzy’
The XKSS, one of only 16 known to exist, will be offered by a Santa Monica auction house next month.
If you like British sports cars and you are going to Amelia Island, Fla., for the upcoming car auctions, bring a big wallet.
Santa Monica auction house Gooding & Co. will be offering an extremely rare 1957 Jaguar XKSS, one of only 16 known to exist, and the first one to appear at public auction in more than a decade.
Jaguar won the 24 Hours of Le Mans road race three years in a row between 1955 and 1957 with its D-Type race car, and designed the XKSS as a high-performance road version for public sale.
Only 25 were to be made, but the Jaguar factory burned down when only 16 had been completed — making a rare car even rarer.
Bidding is expected to be lively, with the ultimate sale price landing somewhere north of $16 million when the car crosses the auction block on March 10.
The last time one of the surviving 1957 XKSS cars went up for auction was 2005, when chassis number 704 changed hands at Pebble Beach, with a sale price of $1.9 million.
Since then, the collector car market has mushroomed, as Ferrari and Porsche auction sales have shattered existing records.
“They are the rarest and most interesting road-going Jaguar,” said automotive historian and collector Ken Gross, who helped the Petersen Automotive Museum acquire an XKSS for its collection — the one owned and raced by Steve McQueen. “For a discerning collector, to buy a real XKSS is a real prize.”
This Jaguar, chassis number 716, was delivered new to a buyer in Montreal, where it was raced to several wins between 1957 and 1961, the auction company said. It then traded hands multiple times.
The current owner has had it for more than 20 years, moving it between England and the United States, and oversaw a complete restoration. The car was shown at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it joined 12 of the 16 known XKSS Jaguars, including the McQueen car.
Auction house owner David Gooding said the XKSS going up for sale has been on his radar for years.
“They just don’t come up, because the people who own them just don’t want to sell them,” Gooding said. “They are among the most desirable cars of their era, which is one of the all-time great eras in sports car history. I think we’re going to have a feeding frenzy.”
If the bidding gets competitive, the XKSS could also set a record. At last August’s RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey, a 1955 Jaguar DType became the most expensive Jaguar, and most expensive British vehicle, ever sold at auction when it went for $21.78 million.
For Jaguar enthusiasts who can’t jump that high, the company recently announced it would produce nine more XKSS road cars, based on original 1957 plans, but with modern upgrades. The new cars have all been sold, at $1.3 million each, and will start being delivered this spring, a Jaguar representative said.