The Jaguar XJ13 replica so accurate it has a £20m price tag

This impressive ‘evocation’ of the car that Jaguar hoped would mark its Le Mans comeback in the late 1960s has been priced at £20m-plus (on the advice of respected historic vehicle valuer Richard Hudson-Evans).

It is being sold by JD Classics, the Essex-based restoration firm that went into administration in 2018 following a multi-million pound court ruling. JD was renamed Woodham Mortimer and acquired out of administration in 2022 by a UAE-based investment fund, which then took the bold decision to reinstate the once-revered JD Classics name, despite its troubled past.

In with the deal came ‘True Spirit of XJ13’, which began life in 1973 when top UK-based replica builder Bryan Wingfield set out to recreate the unique XJ13 that Jaguar hoped would echo its Le Mans successes of the 1950s. But by the time the car was ready for testing in 1967, Ferrari, Ford and Porsche were already way ahead of the game and the Jaguar’s mighty 5-litre engine was no longer eligible to run in the class for which it had been intended.

XJ13 was thus pushed into a corner of the factory where it stayed for four years before being taken to the MIRA test facility near Nuneaton to star in a promotional film for Jaguar’s 12-cylinder E-type – but it was wrecked after a high-speed blow-out caused a huge accident that legendary British test driver Norman Dewis was fortunate to emerge from unscathed.

Later rebuilt by the factory, XJ13 performed a parade lap before the start of the 1973 British Grand Prix, inspiring Wingfield to create a replica.

After acquiring one of the six original XJ13 prototype four-camshaft engines, Wingfield spent a decade building his interpretation of XJ13 before selling it to a prominent collector in the United States.

By 2006, however, the car was back in the UK having ended up with JD Classics through a direct swap for a 1957 Jaguar XKSS (which subsequently sold at auction for £10m).

At this point, the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust sanctioned the ‘authentic evocation’ (as it insists the car is officially called), allowing JD Classics access to the original XJ13 – which is now a static exhibit at the British Motor Museum – for 3D scanning to enable a new, to-the-millimetre-accurate body to be created.

The result is what you see here, with the True Spirit of XJ13 name alluding to the fact that it is claimed to be the most accurate representation of the XJ13 in existence, and the only version powered by one of the two surviving prototype V12 engines from 1966 – the other being, of course, in the original car that’s on display in Gaydon.

Unveiled at the 2024 Salon de Rétromobile in Paris, it is the result of what has effectively been a 45-year project.

And, having driven True Spirit of XJ13 on a Dorset airfield just a couple of weeks before Christmas, I can vouch for the fact that it sounds glorious, goes like stink and sends a shiver down the spine.

Is it worth the £20m-plus price-tag? The price does seem a bit, err, strong – but stranger things have happened.

‘True Spirit of XJ13’
On offer with JD Classics, Maldon, Essex. Asking: £20m-£25m. jdclassics.com

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