Steve McQueen’s Jaguar XKSS Left Jay Leno Star Struck

By Patrick Morgan - April 13, 2020

Steve McQueen’s XKSS is Jaguar’s holy grail, and Jay Leno is beside himself when presented the opportunity to drive it.

Steve McQueen has been in the news a lot lately. His Bullitt Mustang sold at auction for a record $3.74M dollars, making it the most expensive Mustang ever sold. Ironically, it never belonged to McQueen. He did attempt to buy the car, but famously, it never came to fruition. He did, however, own an XKSS. This XKSS.

Jay Leno is one of us. His passion and knowledge for cars is simply superb. But even Leno can be starstruck by a car like this. That is especially true when he was presented to drive Steve McQueen’s Jaguar XKSS. “You know when I was younger and I just moved to Los Angeles, I’d see this car every now and then,” Leno says. McQueen’s Jaguar has a well-known story. But it’s one thing to read about it and another to drive it.

You’re often told you’ll only be disappointed when you meet your hero. Disappointment was nowhere to be found. Comparing it to other Jaguars of the era, he says, “I can’t believe how nice this is to drive. It’s like meeting a beautiful movie star and you’re intimidated at first. And then you realize oh, she’s just like a regular girl, except she’s a movie star! That’s really what this car is.” In fact, he lauded the car several times. The car had some clutch issues while driving, but nothing major. Even so, Leno makes a bold statement, and then corrects himself, saying “you know, it feels like a modern car. Modern cars don’t even feel this good!”

“Wow. This is… this is something special,” Leno says. In fact, he’s completely unable to hold back his smile, and we don’t blame him. “Go down and see this car in person. It’ll blow you away. It’ll be smaller than you thought. It’ll be more compact than you thought. It’ll be sexier than you thought. It’s nice to know that it’s a living, breathing machine.” The Petersen Museum has actually been part of an XKSS revival since this film was made. Jaguar had made 9 “new” examples of the XKSS and presented them to the world at the museum a number of years ago.