Nothing sets a classic car apart then, well, staying classic. This is what British luxury carmaker Jaguar just did as they recreated what people are calling the original supercar, the Jaguar XKSS. The car manufacturer just spent thousands of British pounds and man-hours to create an exact same replica of the classic car that was once owned by the famous Hollywood legend Steve McQueen.
The End OF The Original Jaguar XKSS
The original Jaguar XKSS was built in 1957 as a road version of the Le Mans D-type engine car. This car is iconic and is considered by many as the first supercar ever built. The remaining models of the original XKSS, unfortunately, were destroyed when a fire broke out at the Jaguar Brown Lane factory in the Midlands. Nine out of the 25 limited edition cars have been destroyed and only 16 survived and have been sold.
The Original Was Reborn Using The Same Blueprints
Jaguar's Classic divisions are now building on creating the lost nine cars and are now using the same 1950s technology, materials, and resources to keep the cars as original as possible. Although some new technology was still used to the slightest, such as scanning an original 1957 XKSS to build a complete digital image as a basis. The body was made from hand-rolled magnesium and bronze-welded frame. Imperial measurements were used instead of metric, and all feature period numbers from the original XKSS chassis log. The XKSS puts out 262horse power coming from its 3.4liter straight six D-Type engine and tops up at 150 miles per hour. Only minor changes were done to improve the driver and passenger safety and to meet today's standards.
The Jaguar Classics Engineering team spent 10 thousand hours building each unit with extreme precaution to ensure that everything remains as it should be and as close to the original. The wood steering wheel, leather seats, and the brass knobs have been made precisely as it would have in its original year. The iconic Smiths gauges can be also be seen in the dashboard,
The XKSS Is Already Sold Out
It has been almost 60 years since the original Jaguar XKSS was built and this classic supercar is still giving out the same hype from car enthusiasts, Each of the nine units has already been sold out with a price tag of one million British pounds. One of the original D-Types that won Le Mans in 1956 sold for 16.5 million British pounds, which is significantly more expensive than the recreated version of the XKSS.
