XKSS GROUP TAKES TO THE ROAD

To see 12 Jaguar XKSS's parked neatly in a line is a truly magnificent sight, but to see and hear 12 XKSS's roaring down a California backroad can bring a car enthusiast to tears, writes Tony O'Keeffe, curator of Jaguar Heritage.

Visitors to Sunday's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance will get to see the cars on display, but on Thursday (August 12, 2010), we arranged a very special tour so that the owners could enjoy the thrill of driving their cars on the road in convoy. This historic gathering was the first time the cars have all been together in the same place at once, since coming out of the factory.

Starting at the Pebble Beach Lodge, we threaded our way through Carmel, down Carmel Valley Road and over the soaring Laureles Grade to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway.

Here, after a once in a lifetime photo shoot, the owners got to take their cars for a couple of hot laps of the track before heading back to Carmel for lunch in the courtyard of the historic Carmel Mission.

The task of bringing together all 12 cars began in earnest at the end of last year. Naturally, I'd hoped to assemble all 16 of the original XKSS's, but it was understandable that some owners preferred not to take part.

For the others, the magic of showing their car on the lawn at Pebble Beach, helping to celebrate Jaguar's 75th anniversary and being part of this historic gathering was too hard to resist.

I originally thought that 10 of the cars were based in the U.S. and the other six were in Europe, but it turned out to be the other way around. One hiccup in the plan; in the past four months, two of the cars in the U.S. were quietly sold to European buyers. Thankfully, the new owners agreed enthusiastically to bring their cars over.

I for one won't forget the awe‑inspiring sight of these legendary cars being driven as they were designed to be, hard and fast. You can bet that if Steve McQueen were alive today, he would have been leading the pack in his dark green XKSS.