2008-10-15 07:05:43 | Lofty writes:

This is the Steve McQueen car, originally painted cream. XKSS-713 corresponds to D-Type chassis number XKD 569.

2009-04-14 19:10:27 | pauls writes:

According to "Jaguar D Type & XKSS" by Graham Robson car was dispatched Apr. 19, 1957. Exported to USA.

2011-12-02 00:02:22 | pauls writes:

The following was written by John Bleasdale "Bleasie" of "The Jaguar Supercar Register XJ220 XJR 15 & XJ13"

The Coolest Man on the Planet, (Cobbled together by Bleasie)

XK SS 713 (XKD 569) Eng No E 2076-9, originally White.

Delivered to Jaguar Cars North America. Sold to James Peterson (Altadena, California); August 1957, San Fernando Drag Strip, FTD; Tom Groskritz, who was given a run in the car by Petersen, reports car next sold, in 1958, to radio & TV personality Bill Leyden (Beverly Hills), and that he "used to see that white car with its red interior frequently parked in a studio parking lot off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. In the early'60s Bill sold the XKSS to rising actor Steve McQueen'- but the subsequent owner states that Peterson sold the car to McQueen in late 1958 for $5,000. Bleasie found this quote "I know exactly how much we paid for it," recalls wife Neile. "I signed the check!" (Not a miss print). McQueen painted the car dark green to avoid attention; the seats were red, rimmed in black leather by noted show and race car trimmer Tony Nancy, and the wheels were polished; otherwise, states Richard Freshman, it remained in stock condition throughout his ownership, 'terrorising' the local police and the midnight road race sports-car set, until October of 1967. McQueen affectionately nicknamed it the Green Rat.

McQueen made a sale of 'convenience' to the William Harrah Automobile Collection in Reno, Nevada, with the understanding it was to be displayed in the collection and would not be driven by anyone, or sold. During the spring of 1976, McQueen approached Harrah's to re purchase and was initially rebuffed. Finally, in February 1978, after a lengthy legal exchange, he managed to re purchase the car for substantially more than his original sale price, mileage then 26,273. After standing for 11 years, the brakes and other minor details were refurbished. 1984 the car was auctioned following McQueen's death, sold to Richard Freshman, a friend and neighbour of McQueen's. Mileage then 39,396. Extensive mechanical overhaul then carried out by Lynx. Freshman, visiting every 6-8 weeks to check on progress. 1992. Mileage 41,200, Richard Freshman sold to the Peterson Museum USA.

McQueen's iconic pals included master upholsterer Tony Nancy, who gave the car its unique leather-interior treatment, and pin striping. Innovator Von Dutch, who fabricated a Glove box door to keep McQueen's shades safe during midnight banzai runs. They're just two of the touches that make 713 the singularly most unique and valuable XKSS (Beasies Note,must keep the shade's safe.

On the storied Mulholland Drive runs along the uppermost ridge of the Hollywood Hills and the eastern portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, you can look to the north to see Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, and the Hollywood sign. Pan south, and seemingly all of Los Angeles, from downtown to the Pacific coastline, lies out in front of you like a giant ant farm. Mulholland is a curvaceous ribbon of pavement that winds up, down, and around for miles. It's here that McQueen, sometimes with a few pals, would take his cars out to play, usually between midnight and 4 a.m. It took only minutes to get from his home on Solar Drive (where he lived from 1960 until mid-1963 and which inspired the name of his film company, Solar Productions.

Nancy's neatly patterned leather interior has developed a rich patina and, save minor wear, remains in excellent condition. The wood-and-aluminium steering wheel sits close to the chest, and the large, classic Smiths Speedo and tacho are just to its left. From this vantage point, you see curves everywhere: the small, tightly wrapped windshield, the roundness of the nose, and most of all, those arching fenders that resemble feline and female body forms. The starter motor cranks hard against the XK's 12.0:1 compression ratio, but the engine lights with a serious bark out the left flank. Volumes of sounds pour out -- a throaty, race-bred gurgle, like that of an expensive motorboat and one that could come only from a straight six. McQueen would hold a cig and drape the steering wheel with his right hand and row the stubby, aluminium-knobbed shifter with his left. First gear is tall -- good to over 50 -- yet second and third is spaced close to keep the growling six on the boil. With around 300 horsepower from the blueprinted XK six on tap, and an estimated weight of little more than 2,000 pounds, the XK-SS isn't quick. It's genuinely fast, even in today's terms. Five-second 0-to-60 times, was positively exotic for 1957. There's a vintage feel about 713, yet it doesn't seem like a 50-year-old car. I couldn't drive 713 as hard or fast as McQueen did -- it's a 2.5 to 3.0 million-dollar piece nowadays -- but I couldn't help snapping off crisp 1-2 shifts at about 5,000 revs. Gas it, and the exhaust note hardens to a throaty blare, harmonized by a reedy intake noise from the sidedraft Weber's. The pipes pop and spit when you let off the gas. Heat waves boil out of the hood vents. Intoxicating.

Local legend holds that at least one L.A. law-enforcement agency had promised an expensive steak dinner to the officer who could nail McQueen and the Jag with a speeding ticket. The tale continues that, while he was spotted often and even pursued a time or two, he was never caught and the ticket never written. The steak dinner went unclaimed. Another story refutes the entire affair, alleging that McQueen was so awash in speeding tickets he nearly lost his license.

Jaguar was a dominant force in racing during the 1950s. Ferrari was already a major player, and on the right day, Aston Martin and Maserati got their licks in. Porsche's star was rising, too, but it was Coventry's fast, dependable, and downright beautiful XK-120Ms, C-Types, and D-Types that commanded so many sports car and endurance races. Jaguars won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times that decade, notching the hat trick in 1955, 1956, and 1957, plus countless other professional and amateur victories in Europe and the United States. The D-Type was among the definitive front-engine sports racers of the era. It was straightforward yet technologically advanced for the time, powered by Jaguar's already legendary XK dual overhead cam (DOHC) inline-six. Designed during late 1952 and 1953, and raced by the factory team from 1954 to 1956, the D-Type employed a unique chassis layout. Everything aft of the firewall was a monocoque tube; everything forward of it was a tubular structure that held the engine, front suspension, and aluminium front-hinged hood. Its sensual form was the work of Jaguar designer and aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer and company patriarch William Lyons.

Most factory D-Types were equipped with 3.4-liter XK engines wearing a trio of side-draft two-barrel carburettors and employing dry-sump oiling. The earliest were factory-rated at around 250 horsepower, and the engine was backed by Jaguar's own all-synchro four-speed transmission (not to be confused with the Moss box used in production cars). In total, 67 such D-Types were constructed (plus the factory's own racers), and they competed into the early 1960s. But by the time the factory pulled out of racing after the 1956 season, the car was becoming dated as a front-line racer. Jaguar found itself with 25 customer D-Types on hand -- and no customers. It's not clear who first came up with the idea to convert them to street spec and sell them as limited-edition GTs, but that's what Jaguar did. A full-width windscreen was added up front, and a just-adequate top and luggage rack were grafted onto the rear deck in place of the dorsal fin. Removable fixed-pane side curtains were mounted to the doors. A vestigial exhaust system was devised, including a shield that only somewhat reduced the number of calves singed on the hot side pipes. The lighting was converted to street spec, two upholstered seats were installed, a passenger-side door and four corner bumperettes were added, and that was that. A total of 16 of these XK-SS's were built. At least two were later reconverted to D-Type racing configurations, and a few that were factory-finished as race cars were later transformed into SS spec, or something similar. Only 16 of the 25 remaining cars left the factory before a massive fire struck in February 1957, destroying much of Jaguar's work-in-process inventory -- including the final nine D-Type / XK-SSs. It is reported 713 could be worth $3,000,000.

It has been said, " You cannot look cool in a Nomex Suit" There was one man who could disprove that.

I recall being at Scottish National Day circa 1987 Campbell McLaren had his XKSS JAG 1 on display some youngster was overheard to say "Oh it's only a Replica" I do not think Campbell was amused his comment "Do you think anyone would put -JAG 1- on a Replica??

Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen (March 24, 1930 - November 7, 1980) The American movie actor. Nicknamed "The King of Cool. His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno. In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world. Although McQueen was combative with directors and producers, his popularity put him in high demand and enabled him to command large salaries. He was an avid racer of both motorcycles and cars. While he studied acting, he supported himself partly by competing in weekend motorcycle races and bought his first motorcycle with his winnings. He is recognized for performing many of his own stunts, but one of the most widely claimed and cherished examples of this - that he did the majority of the stunt driving for his character during the high-speed chase scene in Bullitt - was revealed not to be true by his most trusted stuntman and stunt driver Loren James. McQueen also designed and patented a bucket seat and trans brake for racecars.

2013-04-11 07:31:17 | terry mcgrath writes:

I am wondering between its original cream and its BRG which its better known as being whether this car was red as I have a picture taken early 1960's of McQueen and a red XKSS.
I am always chasing info and photos of XKSS's to fill in the gaps in the histories of these cars
terry

2014-04-21 13:35:09 | pauls writes:

From Autoweek, webzine 4/21/14
Retracing Steve McQueen's Los Angeles in his Jaguar XKSS
The King of Cool meets the coolest car ever

This is Williamson's favorite Petersen car. His 2nd is the 1953 Ferrari Barchetta that Enzo gave Ford II. Photo by Blake Z. Rong.

By: Blake Z. Rong on 4/21/2014
In 1958, Steve McQueen bought this Jaguar XKSS from a local TV personality who kept it parked in a studio lot on Sunset Blvd. McQueen cajoled his wife Nellie into writing a check for $5,000 -- today around $40,000 -- and became the third owner of XKSS chassis number 713, a car that had originally been imported a year earlier by Jaguar North America. It had been purchased new by a man who helped develop Riverside Raceway. The ingraining of motorsports history, even tangentially, was only appropriate. McQueen was early in his career and showing glimpses of the potential hell-raising that would come at the height of his powers; that the Jaguar, with its stubby proportions, inflated curves, and race-derived everything, appealed to him was only natural.

XKSS number 713 was off-white with a red interior -- a thoroughly handsome color scheme, especially for a convertible, but McQueen wouldn't have any of it. ("He liked darker, subtle colors," reminisced Chad McQueen years later. "He just had the greatest taste in cars.") Off went the white, on went British Racing Green. The red interior, gone -- swapped by hot rodder Tony Nancy, "The Loner," for black upholstery at his Sherman Oaks shop. Not a trace of white remained. The car had been stripped down for the repaint, covering every delicate aluminum body panel on both sides; the doors open above the achingly tall doorsill, upwards and outwards like an Aston Martin DB9 -- had it been a coupe, Sir William Lyons would have been tempted to fit gullwing doors, a la Mercedes. But alas.

Jaguar built the XKSS as a way to use up leftover D-Type chassis; the car had stopped racing in 1957, departing as an undisputed champion. Straight Le Mans victories in 1955, 1956, and 1957 cemented Jaguar's reputation even as the company pulled out of factory efforts after the first year of winning. Lyons figured Americans loved fast European sports cars so the Le Mans champion became a thinly-veiled race car for the street: off went that fabulous fin and on went a passenger door, chrome bumpers, and a rudimentary top. For the most part, that was it.

As I took photos, a faithful recreation of James Dean's 550 Spyder "Lil' Bastard" drove by. Couldn't make this up.

McQueen nicknamed his car the "Green Rat," perhaps in reference to James Dean's "Lil' Bastard." While he was shooting the show "Wanted: Dead or Alive," starring McQueen and his legendary sawn-off "Mare's Leg," he would sometimes tie his horse to the Jaguar. He drove fast and ran from the cops without second thoughts. Once, he tricked a patrolman into racing him and a supposedly in-labor Nellie to the hospital; Nellie was pregnant, sure, but only by six months. McQueen waited for the patrolman to leave, then told the nurses, "false alarm." Nellie was so angry she didn't speak to Steve for the rest of the day. "But, by God, it worked!" he said. "I didn't get the ticket!"

The sheriff of the LAPD introduced a lottery for his men: whoever could finally nab the son of a bitch would win a steak dinner at Lawry's.

Not a single cop won.

In 1963, McQueen co-starred with Natalie Wood in Love With the Proper Stranger. Wood was rumored to have spent much of the shoot trying to seduce McQueen, but surprisingly, he didn't bite. (McQueen reportedly respected his friend Robert Wagner, Wood's husband, far too much to make her just another notch on his belt.) Nevertheless, the two became friends. And in the early morning before the day's shooting, McQueen would wind his way down from Solar Drive, across Mulholland, down Laurel Canyon Road, pick up Natalie Wood and drive her to Old World Café, near Sunset and San Vicente -- which since then has evolved into a succession of bars.

Imagine McQueen blasting up and down the Sunset Strip, flush from The Great Escape, at the height of his powers, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, the coolest of cool. Imagine the Green Rat ascending Mulholland at two in the morning -- its wide-eyed headlights bouncing off the canyon walls, side-mounted exhausts resonating deep into the Valley. There goes McQueen, they'd say, probably from somewhere past Encino. There he goes, with his race car.

Dana Williamson has been the Petersen's Manager of the Collection for a scant six months, yet, they've already entrusted him with McQueen's car. "Well, somebody has to do it," he said. Williamson moved here from Boston where he ran Williamson Coachworks for the last 14 years, specializing in split-window Corvettes, Triumph and BSA motorcycles, and -- well, anything worth preserving. When a long weekend opened up he made the commute to Los Angeles to see his wife, an actress and entertainment reporter living in LA for the past 12 years. Six months ago he got the Petersen job and moved West, and now plies Los Angeles streets in a 1978 Porsche 911SC Targa or a 1967 BSA Thunderbolt that he labels a survivor "only 'cuz it looks like it's been through a war."

The Petersen Museum acquired the car from Richard Freshman. The collector purchased it from the McQueen estate in 1984 as it was being liquidated. Chad fought desperately to keep it in the family. But Freshman, understanding the significance, sought a sympathetic restoration in the Jaguar's native England. Margie and Robert E. Petersen bought the car in 1999, where it has remained since.

The museum exercises most of its cars once a month, said Williamson. Seals dry up, plugs foul, oil sludges to the bottom. An object at rest, etc. Normally, Williamson does a few laps on the roof of the Petersen, takes a few pictures; the permit to drive on the street is a hassle. But Jay Leno is driving it the day after we go for our ride. "You got an exclusive over Leno," he beamed.

There is no graceful way to enter a Jaguar XKSS. Reach over the removable side window and feel around for a latch, then lift. Hold the door up as you climb over the wide, tall doorsill that ends somewhere around crotch level. The seats are bolt-upright, thinly padded, absurdly narrow; the effect is not unlike an American Airlines' coach cabin if the seats were replaced with children's high chairs (we hear it's under consideration).

The view over the hood is sensuous -- bulging fenders, swollen hood. The end fades away in the sunlight like an infinity pool, viewed through a thick aluminum frame shaped like wraparound sunglasses. It's a ridiculously phallic automobile: McQueen's psychologists would have had a field day simply watching it pull into the parking lot.

Starts right up! Not bad for a cranky old race car. The side pipes emit quite the rumble. They're pointed down and outward and the sound reverberates off the hot pavement straight up into your ears, bassy and crackling. The engine is an XK-series inline-six, twin overhead cam, triple Webers, producing 262 horsepower and offering 60 mph from a standstill in 5 seconds. Even today this is quick; back then, it was devastating. The Dunlop brakes -- discs all around, a period innovation -- protest until warm with a chorus of squeals. Missed shifts from the tricky four-speed gearbox produce a noisome grind: first and second are unsynchronized. Steering is rack and pinion, the front suspension is double wishbone, and the entire car rattles like a toolbox filled with hammers.

It's worth noting that the citizens of Los Angeles are so jaded when it comes to flashy cars that they hardly turn a head at the XKSS -- one is tempted to conclude that even if lothario McQueen was still alive and at the wheel, he wouldn't garner a second glance. Maybe that was for the best. Faces from cars twice as tall viewed us with a mixture of curiosity and contempt; we were anarchists, we were overstepping the norm, we were filled with equal parts flash and cantankerousness. (Leno must know this all too well.) A young brunette sauntered across San Vicente, coffee in hand, eyes aimed resolutely and unwaveringly forward. A girl in yoga pants, dog leash in hand, pretended the XKSS's side-piped burble wouldn't drown out her phone conversation. The dog looked up with mild curiosity.

"McQueen owned it halfway into his racing career," said Williamson from the driver's seat, with his Ray-Bans bearing some resemblance to the departed actor. "So when he drove it on the street, he drove it as hard as he could. I'm sure he scared a lot of people."

From here, we nearly retraced the steps to McQueen's house: up Laurel Canyon Road, turning the other way across Mulholland, stopping at the overlook to Fryman Canyon -- where, if you hike down to the dense trees, you can sit on the remains of a Volkswagen Thing that met a ruinous fate among the rocks.

"How fast were we going, 60?" I asked.

"You know what, I wasn't watching." He looked down. "But yeah, about 60."

"Do the wipers work?"

"Let's see," said Williamson, and he cranked the knob twice. "Nope."

Even in its element the XKSS is cramped, hot, fragile, loud. Its brakes chirp like birds all the way down Laurel Canyon. There is no dignified way to get out. At one point, we pulled over on Sunset Blvd. to let the engine cool among the shade of delivery trucks, and their drivers looked at us with a certain annoyance: who were these snobs in our way?

But I walked away with a kindred conclusion, shared by anyone who comes in contact with an XKSS: it embodies that most beguiling of concepts -- a race car, for the road -- in such an outlandish, otherworldly fashion that it doesn't even need the King of Cool -- it is already cool enough.

McQueen, uncharacteristically fearing for his license, sold the Jaguar XKSS in 1969 to Vegas tycoon William F. Harrah. For the next eight years, the car haunted McQueen with its absence. He made Le Mans, he made The Towering Inferno. He entered the 12 Hours of Sebring, narrowly losing to Mario Andretti by a scant 23 seconds. McQueen divorced Nellie and married his co-star from The Getaway, Ali MacGraw, 10 years his junior. His garage remained Jaguar-free. He made On Any Sunday and made Husquvarna a household name. Meanwhile, Harrah put the Jaguar up on display in his namesake casinos.

Finally, McQueen couldn't take it anymore -- he went to Harrah and bought the damn thing back. The year was 1977. In his desperation, he paid twice as much as he had 20 years earlier. He drove it around for just three years before dying from lung cancer in 1980.

We wonder what an antiestablishment, antihero McQueen would say to the legions of pretenders thriving off his name today, hoping to capture an essence of his coolness, licensing his brand for everything from motorcycles to perfumes to faux-mud-splattered 499-pound jackets; companies and promoters and marketing departments who namedrop McQueen as a stand-in for everything cool and badass and rebellious while being market-friendly and worth the premium, as if cool itself could be distilled into trendy commodity. McQueen, by all accounts, was "complex and haunted:" a lousy drunk, a cokehead, a shitty husband who hammed his way through terrible movies just as he led the cult ones. Depth behind the façade, pain behind the cool, McQueen was all too human a being just like the rest of us.

But he carved out a myth that echoed far beyond his 50 short years. The "King of Cool" persona permeated everything he touched, as evidenced by his machines. Just last year, his 1946 Indian Chief sold for nearly six times its value. A year before that, McQueen's 1970 Porsche 911S sold for an eye-watering $1.375 million. The suit McQueen wore during Le Mans, while he gave the British a piece of his mind, had been valued from $200-300,000. It sold for nearly a million dollars.

Back in 1984, Freshman paid $148,000 for the XKSS. It's worth quite a bit more now. Williamson figured that if it went up for auction, it would probably fetch $10 million. (At Barrett-Jackson in 2003, an XKSS without the celebrity provenance sold for $1.1 million. It was white, like McQueen's car once was.) How does it feel to drive a $10 million car?

"I try not to think of it that way," he laughed. "Everybody says they want to buy it, but I don't think the Petersen would ever sell it. It's one of their jewels."

Read more: www.autoweek.com/article/20140421/carnews01/140429988

2014-05-26 13:07:32 | Christophe Chanterault writes:

It is the subject of the latest video of Jay Leno's Garage :

www.youtube.com/watch

2014-05-28 16:45:46 | pauls writes:

Anybody with real interest in the car should watch the above video. It's not just a drive like many of Jay's but they talk about the history, heritage and a few special features of the car the McQueen had done. I've never seen so many grins on Jay's face.

2022-04-25 08:02:18 | pauls writes:

Posted in Bring A Trailer 4/25/22

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California is offering the winning bidder of this no-reserve auction and a guest a multi-day experience package that includes accommodations for two, a private tour of the Petersen, a ride-along in the 1956 Jaguar XKSS formerly owned by Steve McQueen.

2023-06-29 16:10:48 | pauls writes:

First owner James Peterson, engineer for the Riverside raceway (Jaguar in America by John Dugdale).