Away from the start of Race 3 at Eagle Mountain in April of 1957, Dave Tallaksen’s 3.4-liter XK-SS (#147) shares the front row of the grid with Bob Schroeder’s Kurtis-Chevy (#233) as a pair of Corvettes give chase. Photo: Bob Jackson
By late 1956 the production of Jaguar’s D-Type competition model had come to an end, but of a total of 71 cars built since 1954, 16 remained unsold. In an effort to find a different market for its increasingly obsolete inventory, the factory decided to convert each remaining competition car into a luxury, road-going version. The traditional finned headrest was removed from its aluminum body; a full-width, metal-framed windshield with side screens, windshield wipers, bumpers and a trunk-mounted luggage rack were added. In the cockpit the gauges were spread out across the dashboard, unlike the competition model where they were concentrated. Upholstery was first class and to protect its wealthy owner from the elements a canvas folding top was added. The luxury model was named the XK-SS and each of the converted XK-Ds received a different chassis number, starting with a 7 to reflect the year of conversion: 1957.
Chassis 701’s second owner, Bob Stonedale of Houston, with Carroll Shelby inside the Greyhound bus that Shelby regularly used to haul his entourage to various race events around the American Southwest. Photo: Bob Schroeder
Mechanically the XK-SS remained similar to the production (read: customer) version of D-Type: a 3.4-liter, straight-6 engine with double overhead camshafts fed by three 45 DCM Webers. Output was 250 bhp and top speed 150 mph. The new model came with the D-Type’s effective disc brakes and knock-off alloy competition wheels made by Dunlop.
