In the event you’re searching for a automobile that completely encapsulates Jaguar’s historical past, it is exhausting to look previous the XKSS of the Nineteen Fifties.

A street automobile constructed from unused chassis of the D-Kind race automobile, the XKSS is the right mixture of elegant seems, racing pedigree and uncooked efficiency.

It ought to come as no shock that movie star and racing aficionado Steve McQueen was an enormous fan. He ended up shopping for one in 1958 from tv presenter Invoice Leyden, after which he instantly received round to customizing it. McQueen would find yourself holding on to the automobile till his loss of life in 1980.

McQueen’s XKSS at the moment sits within the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Jay Leno was lucky sufficient to drive it again in 2014.

Within the newest episode of “Jay Leno’s Storage,” the humorous man revisits the XKSS, although this time a duplicate constructed by Crew CJ Works out of Austin. The corporate focuses on restoration of basic vehicles, and just lately determined to construct the XKSS reproduction as a one-off undertaking. It is not an actual reproduction. A transparent giveaway is the steering wheel being on the alternative facet to the McQueen automobile. There are different variations, too, as identified within the video by Crew CJ Works Dan Mooney.

Mooney did not say whether or not he is prepared to construct extra replicas, although apparently Jaguar itself received round to constructing extra examples of the XKSS again in 2016. These vehicles, 9 all up, have been continuation fashions, constructed utilizing authentic VINs of deliberate XKSS vehicles that have been destroyed by a hearth on the Jaguar manufacturing unit whereas they have been nonetheless in manufacturing again in 1957.