Thought the petrol Jaguar was dead? Think again

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It’s a bizarre coincidence that on the same day Jaguar releases a 30-second YouTube teaser hinting at its all-inclusive electric future, I am preparing to unleash the full fury of a petrol-powered Jag. The car in question is a recreation of a one-off 1960s prototype competition Jaguar, the XJ13, a racer that was designed to beat all comers at Le Mans but, ultimately, never made it to the starting line. Dubbed the “True Spirit of XJ13”, the recreation is currently on sale, having been given a guide price of £20mn-£25mn by leading classic car authority and valuation expert Richard Hudson-Evans.

To appreciate the car’s significance, one has to go back in time to 1966, when Jaguar’s management was trying to relive its glorious successes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – outright victory in 1951, first, second and fourth in 1953, second and fourth in 1954, and first and third in 1955. In order to be in with a chance, Jaguar’s new car had to be beyond special – but the Experimental Department’s Competition Shop spent so long pursuing perfection that the XJ13 wasn’t ready for high-speed testing until 1967, and by 1968 Ferrari, Ford and Porsche had all developed more advanced cars and the Jaguar’s five-litre engine was no longer eligible to run in the class for which it had been designed.  

The XJ13 was put in hibernation in a dark corner of the Coventry factory – a state it remained in for four years. It was then taken to the MIRA test facility in Warwickshire to star in a promotional film for Jaguar’s soon-to-be launched 12-cylinder E-Type. In the event, a high-speed blowout sent the car end-over-end before it landed trackside, wrecked. Remarkably, veteran Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis escaped largely unharmed.

The car was subsequently rebuilt and performed a parade lap before the start of the 1973 British Grand Prix, where it was spotted by engineer Bryan Wingfield, who specialised in creating high-quality replicas of important Jaguars and Fords. Wingfield spent a decade building his interpretation of the XJ13 (though he was unable to exactly recreate the body as he was denied access to the original) before selling it to a prominent collector in the US.

In 2006 the car was acquired by a UK restoration specialist, and this time the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust allowed access to the original XJ13 – now a static exhibit at the British Motor Museum – so it could be 3D-scanned and a millimetre-accurate replica of its body made. Following three years of painstaking work, the completed restoration was unveiled to acclaim at the 2024 Rétromobile in Paris.

The 500hp motor sounds like an enraged big cat growling through a megaphone

The result of what has effectively been a 45-year project to clone the original XJ13 is undeniably exquisite, both in appearance and performance. Out on the track at Henstridge Airfield in Somerset, the 12-cylinder, quad-camshaft, fuel-injected 500hp motor sounds like an enraged big cat growling through a megaphone. Appropriately enough for a car with bodywork designed by aerodynamicist and legendary Jaguar designer Malcolm Sayer, the True Spirit of XJ13 surges forward as if preparing for take-off, the howl from the engine increasing in perfect parallel with the degree of forward thrust.

Snicking the right-side gear lever up into second brings the horizon ever more quickly towards the cockpit, with third causing the turf at the end of the airstrip to loom ominously close what seems like a millisecond later. The visceral feeling to be had from driving this near-perfect recreation of what should have been Jaguar’s return to racing success 60 years ago will stay with me forever.

Although other recreations of the XJ13 exist and have changed hands for a fraction of this car’s claimed value, none is as accurate and none features one of the original four-cam engines especially developed for Le Mans (just two of which are believed to have survived).

It’s no surprise that the central exhibit at the 2024 Treasure House Fair in London wasn’t a painting, a sculpture, a piece of furniture or an installation – it was the True Spirit of XJ13.

jdclassics.com