Autoweek: Retracing Steve McQueen's Los Angeles in his Jaguar XKSS

[BlaRo]

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.

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.

More at Autoweek.com. The King of Cool meets the coolest car ever. Namely, myself.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Daaaaamn. I have a huge thing for the XKSS.

 

[LeVeL]

Jealous. That is flippin' awesome!

I have a huge thing

 

[ScarFace88]

I saw that car go up for auction at Amelia Island 15 years ago!

 

[bone]

now you got me jealous!!
you drove a D-type!!!???

 

[watto]

Fuck yesssssssssssssssssssssss

 

[gt1750]

Also nice article

 

[avanti]

Great article!

 

[BlaRo]

^ Hey, who's that guy?