Jaguar XKSS News: Original Supercar to Be 'Resurrected From the Dead'
While it is true that car manufacturers survive by coming up with new products that promise to be better in more ways than one as compared to the ones they previously released, it may not always be the case. Apparently, cars that come with significance history with them can even dictate a higher price tag. Case in point is Jaguar's XKSS model which debuted 60 years ago. Now that the company is planning to resurrect it from the dead, it is expected to come with, at least, $1.5 million price tag once out in the market.
The curvaceous XKSS was considered a road-legal version of the D-Type. It won the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race for three successive years, from 1955 and 1957 to be exact.
Jaguar was already on its way of completing the 25 units of the first ever supercar, but an unfortunate event transpired one fateful day in February 1957: a fire broke out in Jaguar's Browns Lane factory in Coventry, England, gutting all nine remaining chassis of the XKSS. Without any part on hand and with the company's focus on rebuilding the factory so that it could be back to producing mainstream Jaguars, the XKSS slowly died a natural death.
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On the whole, only 16 units of the XKSS saw completion, and most of them were sold in the U.S. One of most notable owners was Steve McQueen, although what he owned was only a secondhand one. Interestingly, McQueen sold his XKSS to casino owner William Harrah, only to pay him twice his selling price to him just to get hold of the car once more.
Now that Jaguar via its Land Rover Classic has announced in the ongoing New York International Auto show that it plans to resurrect the nine gutted XKSS from their ashes, the originally planned 25 units of XKSS will finally be completed as the company will start working on unit no. 17. They will be called "continuation," a clear indication that they will, indeed, be the same XKSS from 60 years ago and not mere replicas.
While not everything about the planned reboot of XKSS will be exactly the same with that of the first ones, such as the panel not being too tight, they will be consistent with the first models. Hence, would-be owners of the Jaguar XKSS can get to experience driving a classic with a modern concept.
