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Forget the Jaguar XJ13, Here’s the Ecurie Ecosse LM69

Of all the cars Jaguar never put into production, the XJ13 is right there at the top of our list. Ecurie Cars Ltd. decided to change that, and this is where the Ecurie Ecosse LM69 enters the scene with a thumpin’ great V12 engine.
Ecurie Ecosse LM69 10 photos
Photo: Ecurie Cars Ltd.
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First things first, only one example of the XJ13 was produced, and it’s never been raced. Someone even offered to pay £7 million for the prototype racer back in 1996, three times the price of a Ferrari 250 GTO back in the day. In other words, the mid-engined racing car is a bit of a unicorn among collectors.

This mechanical work of wonder designed by Malcolm Sayer has also paved the way for the Series 3 E-Type, the first series-production Jaguar with a V12 engine. A few replicars were produced over the years, but none of them can hold a candle to the Ecurie Ecosse LM69 which will premiere in September.

Developed and designed in-house, the mid-engined land missile is the closest thing to owning an XJ13. The quad-cam engine is a thing of beauty that can be admired through a transparent decklid, velocity stacks and everything.

The road-legal reimagination of the prototype from 1966 takes its name from the aborted Le Mans entry in 1969, the endurance race where the XJ13 should’ve been competing against the likes of the Ford GT40, Matra-Simca MS650, and Alpine A210. As expected of an Ecurie Ecosse racing car, the body is finished in what can be described as the most desirable blue in the automotive world.

Ecurie Cars Ltd. doesn’t mention the output of the 5.3-liter engine, which is fed with air and gasoline by mechanical fuel injection. What the company does mention is that the V12 is built to the same specifications as the engine in the XJ13, which was rated at more than 500 horsepower and 517 Nm of torque.

In combination with a five-speed manual transmission from ZF Friedrichshafen, the one-tonne XJ13 could go faster than 170 mph with the right gearing. Expect to find out more about the LM69 at the International Concours of Elegance in London, including the sticker price of this bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful dream machine.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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