1957 classic Jaguar gets a rebuild

Here’s a chance to own something old that’s new again – Jaguar Classic’s continuation of the iconic XKSS, briefly built as a street version of the 1954 Le Manswinning D-Type race car almost 60 years.

Finished in Sherwood Green paint, it was created by the Jaguar Classic engineering team ahead of the production of nine cars for delivery to customers across the globe in 2017.

In 1957, nine cars earmarked for export to North America were lost in a fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in the British Midlands; meaning just 16 examples of XKSS were built. Unsurprisingly, the cars that survived fetch a pretty penny these days. Steve McQueen owned one that’s estimated to be worth up to NZ$35 million.

Earlier this year, Jaguar announced that its Classic division would build the nine ‘‘lost’’ XKSS sports cars for a select group of established collectors and customers.

The new one-off XKSS presented at the Los Angeles Auto Show is the summation of 18 months of research and will be used as a blueprint from which the nine continuation cars are built. The nine cars will be completely new, with period chassis numbers from the XKSS chassis log. All cars are already sold at a price in excess of NZ$1.76 million each.

For that kind of money don’t expect paddle shift, ABS, or even the luxury of electric windows.

The XKSS has vintage features to support its vintage look.

The XKSS is the second continuation car to be created by Jaguar, following on from the six Lightweight E-types that were built in 2014. This project helped the team learn to engineer cars that are faithful to the specifications to which they were built in period, and this knowledge has been enhanced in creating the ‘‘new original’’ XKSS.

For Kev Riches, engineering manager for Jaguar Classic, a branch of the company that focuses mostly on refurbishment and maintenance of classic Jags, the project was ‘‘about recreating a piece of art’’.

‘‘Being a real petrol head, it was about building an authentic car and trying to make the cars as accurate as possible to the cars that were built in the period.

‘‘The XKSS is one of the most important cars in Jaguar’s history, and we are committed to making the ‘new original’ version absolutely faithful to the period car in every way.

‘‘From the number, type and position of all the rivets used – there are more than 2000 in total – to the Smiths gauges on the dashboard, everything is the same as the original cars, because that is the way it should be.

‘‘It was about trying to build that perfect car to the period specification, in the period way as much as possible,’’ said Riches.

Under the hood, the XKSS has a 3.4-litre straight six-cylinder engine with 262hp. The company says everything from the wood of the steering wheel to the leather of the seats and the brass on the dash is exactly as it would have been in 1957, with only minor changes made for 21st century safety requirements.

– Agencies and Stuff