In an attempt to recoup some of the investment made in building unused chassis, and to exploit the lucrative American market for high-performance European sports cars, Sir William Lyons decided to convert a number of to road-going specification.

By early 1957 a total of 16 of the planned production run of 25 XKSS's had been completed at Jaguar's Browns Lane plant.

[citation needed] In March 2016, Jaguar announced that it would be completing the original 25 car order by hand-building the remaining nine XKSS roadsters to the exact original specification, and assigning them the chassis numbers of the destroyed cars.

[3] The American actor Steve McQueen owned a Jaguar XKSS for personal use, painted British racing green.

Steve McQueen's XKSS is currently on display in Los Angeles, California at the Petersen Automotive Museum.