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Jay Leno's Garage drives Steve McQueen's 1956 Jaguar XKSS

Steve McQueen might be the coolest American male of the 20th century. With movies like Bullitt and Le Mans, McQueen established himself as the king of cool of his era, and on the list of actors you would pick for a fantasy racing team - he or Paul Newman are the natural first choices. The latest Jay Leno's Garage video highlights one of McQueen's most special cars - a 1956 Jaguar XKSS.
Just 16 XKSS models were made because a fire at the Jaguar factory halted production. It was meant to be a street version of the company's very successful D-Type racer, with a modified version of its 3.4-liter straight-six-engine and a four-speed manual gearbox. McQueen clearly had an eye for great vehicles. He drove his Jag around Los Angeles years after it was a cutting-edge piece of technology. Since then, it became part of the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA. Autoblog's The List even took a ride in it when the show visited the museum.
The XKSS is one of the pinnacles of automotive design of the '50s, and its association with McQueen makes this example even more extraordinary. Leno is in love with the car from the moment he sees it, and it's hard to argue with him. Between its emphasized curves and raspy exhaust, this is one sexy Jag. Scroll down to get an eyeful and earful from one of McQueen's favorite cars.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Weekly Recap: Jaguar takes a leap with price cut, new strategy

Jaguar was one of the famous automotive props and plotlines in the now-iconic drama Mad Men. There's a scene where the show's protagonist, Don Draper, deftly undercuts an influential Jaguar dealer by indicating that get-me-in-the-door local radio spots would be an effective way to sell cars like the slinky E-Type. The British executives think this is folly – Draper knows they will – and his advertising strategy wins out over the dealer's approach to move the metal. Jaguar's not doing that, but half a century later in the real world the company is launching plans to make its cars more attainable to new and younger customers like Millenials. These aren't coupons, but this is a leap for Jaguar, which has long banked on sexy styling and its rich motorsports history to overshadow its past mechanical flaws. Put simply, Jaguar is addressing the reasons why people, especially the younger set, don't buy its cars. The 2017 XE will start at $35,895 when it launches next spring – which makes it an attractive buy for a successful, relatively young person. When it's time to move up, the redesigned XF will be more attainable, coming in at $52,895, which is $5,275 less than the 2015 model. The flagship XJ sedan and the enthusiast-oriented F-Type sports car will also get thousands of dollars worth of added standard features, and Jag is actively pitching them as a better value than their competitors. "The Jaguar brand is on the eve of a major transformation that will see it dramatically increase its presence in the United States luxury marketplace with an expanded lineup, pricing focused on the core of the luxury market, and an all-new ownership package with best-in-class coverage," Joe Eberhardt, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover North America, said in a statement. The brand's quality and reliability dings have also lurked in the back of buyers' minds for decades, though that's an outdated notion. Jaguar placed third in J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study in June and was the top-ranked luxury brand in J.D. Power's Customer Service Index in March. Not content, the company is rolling out an enhanced program called Jaguar EliteCare that launches on 2016 models. It offers a five-year, 60,000-mile limited warranty, the longest among its competitors, with free scheduled maintenance during that period. The plan also covers roadside assistance and connectivity features.