Museo Stradale

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One man's passionate quest to survey finest motorcars in the world

Photographed: Laguna Seca, Monterey Historic Races, 2009. Owner: Neil Hadfield & Margaret Jackson (XKSS 716)

For my thoughts on this species of cat, and a wacky story of automotive investigation, see Jaguar D-Type XKD 530.

XKD 575 / XKSS 716: This example seems to have been exported to Canada where, in 1957, it ran at the Harewood Acres circuit in the province of Ontario. Then in its second year, the track was built around an airfield like so many of its contemporaries, and reached a length of 2.45 miles at the time this Jaguar was active. XKSS 716 (né XKD 575) took both a first and a second place finish at the track, driven by one Stan McRobert, although subsequent racing history on this particular chassis is hard to come by. A number of hill climb starts are mentioned by various sources, although the main story seems to be one of identity rather than competition success.

According to numerous sources, this chassis is also known as XKSS 716, as it was one of the D-Type chassis converted by Coventry into an XKSS. Sold in 1957, it would have likely raced in Canada as an XKSS instead of a D-Type, remaining that way until its sale to an English owner in 1980. The conversion to its primal, D-Type configuration happened after 1980, and was performed by the well known Lynx Engineering in England. So it remained until 2010 or thereabouts. At present, the car has been converted (again) back to XKSS form, although it is unclear whether this happened during the end of its stay in the United States, under the watch of American owners John and Gary Pearson, or whether the present owners in London returned it to 1957 factory guise.

This charade is confirmed on the basis of XKD 575 appearing at Laguna Seca in 2009 with the Pearsons, while XKSS 716 managed to show up at Pebble Beach the following year with the present owners, where it was part of that incredible line-up of one dozen XKSS examples.

Sources:

Racing Sports Cars: Post-War sports-racing archives, including a few notes on this car.

Coventry Racers: Thankfully, shows a snap-shot of the information plate on XKSS 716 from Pebble Beach, 2011.

Canadian Racer: Providing a nice history on Harewood Acres, including track diagrams of its various incarnations.

 

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