In 2014, Jaguar set about building the six ‘missing’ E-type Lightweights and in 2017, the Coventry marque announced that it would construct nine XKSSs. Jaguar leapt several steps further in 2018, revealing that it would build a whopping 25 ‘new’ D-types, in order to fulfil the factory’s original ambition of 100 cars. Every last detail of these ‘continuation’ cars was faithfully recreated and hand-built at Jaguar Classic Works in Warwickshire. 

While Jaguar polarised the opinion of the classic car world, it undoubtedly kickstarted a trend for manufacturers ‘reproducing’ the greatest hits from their catalogues – Aston Martin swiftly followed suit with the DB4GT, DB4GT Zagato and Goldfinger DB5, and so too has Bentley with its ‘new’ Blower. 

Remarkably, examples of all three of the sleeping cats that Jaguar refused to let lie will be offered as part of The Elkhart Collection, which RM Sotheby’s will sell on 23–23 October in Indiana. 

The Jaguar E-type Lightweight (est. 1.75–2.25m US dollars) has the distinction of being ‘Car Zero’, the first of the seven cars built which was used for press duties in North America. With just 51 miles on the clock, the XKSS (1.5–2m dollars) is as good, ahem, as the day it left the factory, its achingly pretty British Racing Green bodywork contrasting beautifully with the biscuit interior. The D-type (1–1.5m dollars) is notable because it’s a short-nose car rather than the long-nose specification with which Jaguar launched the continuation at Rétromobile in 2018. It’s also finished in one of the most evocative colours of them all: Ecurie Ecosse Blue. 

Photos: RM Sotheby’s © 2020