1960 Jaguar XKSS

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

This beautiful Jaguar XKSS replica was based on the car that was famously owned by movie icon Steve McQueen. Built by the Phoenix Sports Cars team of Phil and Oliver Cottrell – who have a huge amount of experience with C-type, D-type and XKSS replicas – it has covered only 400 miles since being completed in 2022 and is in fabulous condition throughout.

It features riveted aluminium bodywork that was painstakingly created by Shapecraft using wooden bucks from an original short-nose Jaguar D-type. The basic structure faithfully echoes the design of the XKSS, with a central monocoque and a front subframe to carry the engine and suspension, while the painstaking attention to detail extends to adding the correct louvres.

The car is powered by a 4.2-litre XK straight-six that’s running on triple Weber carburettors and has a wet-sump lubrication system. Additional cooling fans have been fitted and the stainless-steel exhaust features custom three-into-one manifolds and twin side pipes. 

Built to fast-road specification, the engine drives through a Moss four-speed gearbox with overdrive, plus a Salisbury Powr-Lok differential. Suspension is independent all round, with adjustable coilover dampers, while braking is taken care of by six-piston Fosseway calipers and vented discs at the front, with inboard discs at the rear. 

The cockpit is faithful to the original, with Smiths instruments and a Moto-Lita steering wheel. As on the McQueen car, the seats are finished in black leather, and Willans four-point harnesses have been added. The windscreen and its frame have been made using the original pattern, the wheels are three-piece, peg-drive Dunlop alloys with chromed spinners, and the exterior has been finished with details such as a Monza-style quick-release fuel-filler cap and a boot-mounted luggage rack.

Built to the very highest standard at a cost of $385,000 and delivered new to an owner in the south of France, this Jaguar XKSS replica is extremely well-sorted and makes for a spectacular road car. Beautiful, fast, and with a fabulous noise from that powerful straight-six, it will allow its next owner to follow in the wheeltracks of Steve McQueen and experience their very own ‘Le Mans car for the road’.

MODEL HISTORY  

The Jaguar D-type is a landmark sports-racing car, having won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times during the 1950s. Designed by famed aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer, it offered a huge step forward compared to its predecessor, the C-type, and borrowed much from contemporary aircraft practice, employing a lightweight aluminium monocoque centre section plus a front subframe for its 3.4-litre straight-six engine.

The D-type was not only raced by the Jaguar factory, it was also built as a limited-numbers ‘production’ car for privateers. When the works announced that it was withdrawing from motor racing in 1956, it had completed 42 out of the intended 67 production D-types. 

With the remaining 25, Jaguar decided to produce a roadgoing version of the D-type and called it the XKSS. Le Mans winner and former works driver Duncan Hamilton claimed that he inspired the decision by converting one of his D-types for road use, but in reality Jaguar wanted to create something that – unlike the D-type – would be eligible for the Sports Car Club of America’s production sports-car class. 

Changes were made to the interior in order to provide genuine two-abreast seating, Sayer designed a simple windscreen and frame, and Jaguar panelbeater Bob Blake formed the front and rear bumpers. Those simple concessions aside, this was very much a Le Mans car for the road. 

When Road & Track magazine tested an XKSS in 1957, it recorded 0-60mph in only 5.2 seconds and 0-100mph in 13.6, and said that ‘as a thinly disguised road-racing machine, it will delight the enthusiast.’

When a huge fire broke out at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in February 1957, nine XKSSs were among the many cars lost. Plans to build more were shelved in the aftermath, so only 16 examples of this sensational machine were built in period and it remains one of the most coveted Jaguars ever made.