After Jaguar withdrew from racing, the British marque looked upon a warehouse of D Type race cars, both finished and unfinished, and saw a potential opportunity to simultaneously recoup some of their investments in the unused chassis while also offering their clients a truly spectacular sports car for public roads. The race cars were converted to XKSS models, street-legal variants of the D-Type that retained all of the racing cars' performance but with the comfort their customers had come to expect. With the addition of a full windscreen, a passenger seat and door, and a folding soft top, as well as the necessary accouterments for a street-legal vehicle, Jaguar had created something truly spectacular: a road-legal race car eligible to race in SCCA events from which the D-type was excluded.

By February 1957, Jaguar had begun production of or finished a total of 25 road-going XKSS cars, many of which were to be sent to American customers. The XKSS was looking to be a successful, albeit niche, offering with demand far exceeding the remaining chassis, but when a fire broke out in the Brown Lanes Plant, the production of the XKSS was immediately doomed. Nine of the cars and all of the XKSS-specific tooling equipment was lost, cutting short an already limited production run. The remaining 16 completed cars were sold to a fortunate few, and to the rest of the world, the XKSS was intangible.

In 1968, tucked in a small industrial park in Oxfordshire, Guy Black, Chris Keith-Lucas, and Roger Ludgate formed Lynx in Sussex to service repair and modify Jaguar race cars. In 1974, at the request of their clients, Lynx built their first D-type and, in 1981, converted it into their first XKSS, just as Jaguar had done with the left-over D-type shells. Their attention to detail and strict adherence to Jaguar's original manufacturing techniques has led not only to perfect visual recreations of the original cars but finished vehicles that are in many ways technically superior to the icons they were resurrecting, with independent rear suspension taken from the Jaguar E-Type.

This XKSS, the third made, was built upon a 1965 Jaguar XKE 4.2L OTS, a car today that, in its own right, demands both respect and a high premium. Lynx originally acquired the E-Type donor for a D-Type build in 1978. This car was assigned number L78/7 and is the seventh Lynx build ever completed. XKE number 1E20379 was dismantled to its purest state, leaving nothing more than its chassis and the spectacular drive train that gave it life. The artisans at Lynx then set to work fitting an entirely hand-fabricated aluminum D-Type body onto the modified chassis, taking special care to ensure the Lynx D-Type looked exactly the same as the original as it would have left Jaguar's factory. Two years after L78/7 was finished, the car made its way back to the Lynx in order to undergo a second build. Much like Jaguar's original D-Type, L78/7 was carefully combed over by Lynx to convert it to the beautiful XKSS you see today. This is the third Lynx XKSS ever produced and has an extremely well-documented history. It is equipped with the original 4.2L inline-6 engine and close-ratio 4-speed EJ Type transmission, both of which are in spectacular order. The motor receives air and fuel from a trio of Weber 45 DCOE carburetors and performs as one would expect from the original XKSS of 1957. Brakes have been upgraded to Wilwood calipers, stopping the lean 2,030lb Lynx on a dime. The car performs spectacularly, with all the ease of use of a well cared for E-Type and the fun of a lightweight, unobtainable piece of racing history. The car has acquired a wonderful patina over the years, only adding to its beauty and feeling of authenticity. With this Lynx being as close to the original Jaguar XKSS as is physically possible, and with both being wonderfully rare animals, few opportunities will ever arise to own such an iconic piece of British racing history.

Donor car: 1965 Jaguar XKE S1 4.2L I6 OTS with a close-ratio 4-speed O/D EJ transmission

VIN #: 1E20379

Body #: 4E21185

Engine #: 7E3246-9

Gear Box #: EJ2301