One to Buy: 400-mile 2018 Jaguar XK SS Sanction 2
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The fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry on the evening of Tuesday 12th February 1957 affected around one quarter of the complex. Having started in the tyre store, it ripped through the test department, material stores, sawmill and parts of an assembly line where a substantial number of cars were stored.
Included among the more than 300 cars either destroyed or seriously damaged were several D-types that had been in various stages of conversion to XK SS trim. Unfortunately, XK SS production never re-started with only 16 of the anticipated 25 examples having been completed.
In addition to these 16 new cars, Jaguar converted two additional D-types to XK SS trim during 1958 (chassis XKD 533 and XKD 540).
59 years after XK SS production stopped, Jaguar announced in March 2016 that its Classic department would complete the 25-car XK SS production run with nine brand new scratch-built Sanction 2 Continuation examples constructed to precisely the same specification as the 1957 originals.
Today, one of those nine Sanction 2 machines is residing at the DK Engineering showrooms in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire.
Configured in British Racing Green (the only example to be painted in period-correct cellulose) with Black upholstery, this 2018 car was granted IVA road approval in March 2019, since which time it has covered 400 miles. In May 2023 it was fettled by Brazell Engineering and is thus described as on-the-button.
