Jaguar Uncovers McQueen's XKSS and Covers the Type 01. Enshrine the Cloth.

Because the body is the whole argument of any Jaguar, consider what the company will do on the 17th Fairway at Pebble Beach on Aug. 16. Five heritage cars will stand there with nothing over them. At the center will be the Type 01, and Jaguar states it without blinking: "The exterior remains concealed. The interior does not."

So five shapes the world has studied since 1955 will be bare, and the one shape nobody has been permitted to see will sit under cloth among them. That cloth will be the most looked-at object Jaguar owns. A cloth doing that much work is no longer a dust cover. It is a relic. Treat it as one.

Because somebody must move these cars onto a lawn, somebody will do it by hand, wearing a ring. I have known that for a day and have taken only tea since. Nobody at this masthead has seen the Type 01.

Now weigh what Jaguar will uncover. The D-type "XKD 507" wears the vertical stabilizing fin it took to Le Mans. Only 16 XKSS were produced, and Steve McQueen had his repainted British Racing Green, making it the one anybody can name. The E-type shows 381 miles from new, in Primrose Yellow. The "XJR-3" took seven consecutive wins for Bob Tullius's Group 44 Inc., and the release says Tullius passed away earlier this year, so nobody can tell him where his car is going. The XJ-S Cabriolet commissioned for Diana, Princess of Wales, has a fixed rear roof section and rear seats so Princes William and Harry could travel with her, trimmed in custom leather and Harris Tweed. Jaguar names the owners and the collections, and not one of the hands that drew these bodies. I noticed in the first paragraph.

Since that cloth is now a relic, hear the remedy. And let it be lifted only by hands that have never worn a ring.