A rarest-of the-rare Jaguar XKSS is headed to auction in London, where it’s guaranteed to set a sales record.
That’s because it’ll be the very first time an XKSS has come under the hammer in Europe, and bidding may reach £9-£11 million.
The 1957 example is said to be one of just two cars built that retained their XKD chassis numbers from when they originally left the Jaguar factory as D-Types. In the case of XKD 540 it sat for a year in Jaguar dealer Coombs of Guildford before being sold to machinery manufacturer and amateur racer Phil Scragg of Macclesfield, Cheshire. In November 1958 Scragg sent the car back to Brown’s Lane to be converted to full XKSS specification.
That meant adding a full-height windscreen, passenger door, luggage rack, weather gear and bumpers while the axle ratio was also increased to 3.92:1 for more accessible acceleration at the expense of top speed.
It doesn’t appear that Scragg got the chance to exploit the car’s performance as he sold it on to Jack Browning of Cheltenham in 1959. Browning, however, most certainly did, competing in numerous hillclimbs. He even sent the car back to the factory once again to be upgraded to 3.8 liters.
Through the remainder of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s the XKSS passed through the hands of several speedy owners including hill climber Betty Haig and Formula 5000 racer Colin Hyams in Australia. It returned to the UK in 1972 to become part of Bryan Corser’s collection in Shropshire alongside the very last C-Type, an ex-Jim Clark D-Type and ex-Peter Sutcliffe Lightweight E-Type. Under Corser’s care the XKSS was fully restored.
Next the XKSS travelled to Germany where it spent 24 years with Hermann Graf von Hatzfeldt of Wissen, before he sold it to Jaroslav Pawluk of Schwalmtal. The current keeper acquired XKD 540 in 2017 and it has since had a front suspension and brake overhaul, along with some electrical work and tidying up of the hood and tail.
The matching numbers machine is being sold with an extensive spares package and, says auctioneer RM Sotheby’s: “Its performance and aesthetic appeal are matched only by its impeccable provenance and originality. Given the car’s itinerant life, and the passage of more than six decades, this is both remarkable and testament to the informed and sympathetic ownership which it has always enjoyed. Comprehensively documented, impeccably preserved and fastidiously maintained, it remains one of only a handful of D-Types or XKSSs considered beyond reproach, and one destined to serve as a uniquely spectacular centrepiece in any prospective collection.”
