Top Dollar Jaguar XKSS With Aussie Connection Fails to Sell at London Auction

A Jaguar once owned by Australian motor sporting identity Laurie O’Neill has failed in its quest to become the most valuable car of its type ever sold.

Offered in early November by London auction house RM Sotheby’s, the Jaguar XKSS was guided at £9-11 million (A$17.6-21.5 million) but at the time of publication was listed as ‘not sold’.

This car is one of 18 derived from the D-Type sports/racing Jaguar which dominated Le Mans 24 Hour contests during the mid-1950s. Unused racing chassis were in the process of being converted for road use when a devastating fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry, UK, ended the project.

This particular XKSS has an Aussie link, as it was raced here by Laurie O’Neill and Colin Hyams in 1962 (Image: Tom Hains for RM Sotheby's)

Chassis XKD 540 was delivered new to an owner in Britain before spending several years in Australia then returning to the UK and being comprehensively restored.

Better news for RM Sotheby’s came via the November sale’s other superstar lot; a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR ‘Gullwing’ coupe which did find an owner at £1,445,000 (A$2.8 million). It was a car with special significance for British buyers, having been displayed at the 1954 London Motor Show and owned by the same family since 1956.

Others to broach the million-pound barrier and sell included a £1.096 million (A$2.13 million) Delahaye 135 S that finished 8th at Le Mans in 1939 and three Ferraris.

The best of these at £1.95 million (A$3.8 million) was an F40, followed by a 275GTB at £1.75 million (A$3.4 million) and a lovely 250GT Lusso that slightly exceeded £1.1 million (A$2.14 million).

This iconic Ferrari F40 fetched £1,973,750 at the London 2024 event (Image: Simon Gosselin for RM Sotheby's)

Joining the Ferraris in easily exceeding the million mark was a McLaren Senna GTR LM, one of only five built to the same specification in 2020 with 620kW engines. All were painted differently in the colours of the cars that delivered McLaren its best Le Mans 24 Hour result – first, third, fourth, fifth and 13th – in 1995. 

The Senna GTR LM sold by RM Sothebys paid tribute to the Harrods livery of the car that placed second at Le Mans and which at £1.75 million (A$3.4 million) was likely the most erudite purchase of the sale.

Below the seven figure cars came various Aston Martin and Bentley models, headed by a perfectly restored DB5 in Black Pearl which sold at £567,000 (A$1.1 million). A DB4 Drophead convertible was also sold, but after the sale for an unspecified price.

This 1958 Bentley S1 Continental Drophead Coupé by Park Ward fetched an impressive £736,250 (Image: Neil Fraser for RM Sotheby's)

On the Bentley side, the sale was highlighted by a 1958 Series 1 Continental Drophead which sold for an exceptional £736,250 (A$1.43 million).

Those with shallower pockets and an adventurous spirit could have bid on the Barn Find Aston Martin DB6 that eventually exceeded £85,000 (A$165,000) or our pick of the sale – a Mercedes-Benz 280SL Pagoda. Although catalogued as needing some mechanical ‘recommissioning’ the SL with its Pagoda hardtop looked lovely and sold below £75,000 (A$146,000). 

RM Sotheby’s other November auction of exceptional motor vehicles was held in Munich on November 23. Among the star sales was a Porsche 550 Spyder, the same type involved in the death of screen star James Dean, which fetched €3,464,375 (A$5.63 million).

However, the car which fetched top-dollar there was a 1923 Mercedes Type 122 Indianapolis Racer, just pipping the Porsche with a return of €3,605,000 (A$5.86 million). Two 1929 Mercedes 710 models – an SSK Roadster by Sindelfingen and an SS Roadster by Corsica – also broke the seven-digit barrier.

This Porsche 550 brought home €3,464,375 in RM Sotheby's other November event in Munich (Image: Remi Dargegen for RM Sotheby's)