After winning Le Mans multiple times in a row during the mid 50's, Jaguar director William Lyons had decided by 1960 that top level motor racing was no longer financially viable. While the Jag Mk 2 saloon and EType coupe proved that the marquee was still capable of making winners, William Heynes initial Le Mans prototype design from 1960 was rejected by Lyons until 1964. Heynes optimistic goal was to have the car ready for the 24 hours of Le Mans in June of 1965.

The design called for a 5 liter V12 engine, of which Jaguar had no experience, so two XK inline 6 engines were essentially combined at a 60 degree angle. Malcolm Sayer, the primary aerodynamicist for the Jaguar C and D Type, was called upon to design the bodywork. With a paltry budget, development moved at a snail's pace. Production didn't actually begin at the factory until May of 1965, just two weeks before the race, with Norman Dewis hired to test drive. According to Dewis, the project was cancelled by Lyons during Jaguar's merger negotiations with BMC, with only one chassis finished by March of 1966, at which point the car was "mothballed".

In 1967 Sir William Lyons retired, leaving Lofty England, the old project lead for the D Type, to take over as managing director of Jaguar, with William Heynes as his partner. The two immediately restarted the project, with England agreeing with Heynes that a professional race driver was needed if the car was ever going to improve. David Hobbs, who formerly tested with Jaguar in 1962, was called back to test the car.

"When they finally decided to run it, it had already been built for some time. At least a year or two...And it had the Dunlop Racing tyres of five years previously and the old Dunlop disc brakes. Pressed steel DType wheels. It had EType front suspension – rubbermounted – poly bushes and it had the EType rear suspension. Beautifullooking thing. And a hell of an engine of course. It really gave a lot of horsepower...about 500.

It went extremely fast. We went to MIRA about four or five times. Then they made the decision to drive it at Silverstone so they decided to get two drivers – me and Richard Attwood, another Jaguar apprentice. So off we go to Silverstone and I can’t remember the exact times but I think we did round about a 1:36 – 1:35. The lap record at the time was held by Paul Hawkins in his red GT40 – about 32 or 33. So we weren’t all that far off the pace. If you consider it had these old pads, old wheels, old brakes. The suspension flexed far too much of course. And of course it had no attempt at any sort of spoilers on it. Very sleek. It was incredibly quick of course down the straights.

Richard and I gave a job list of things to do. We wanted modern wide wheels for a start and modern racing tyres. I think those two alone would have seen us down to the lap record. And another … I seem to remember the bias front to rear brakes was poor. It wanted a lot of, you know, a good tidying up. We reckoned it would have been quick."

Then the FIA announced that the prototype class would be limited to 3 liters in 1968, making the XJ13 obsolete before it even raced. Again it was placed in storage.

But the legacy of the car lived on in another way. Lofty England still believed in the V12 they had created, and continued development of the engine until it's debut in 1971 with the Series 3 E Type, then in 1972 with the Jaguar XJ12, which became the first mass produced 4 door sedan to be powered by a V12.

To promote the new engine, Norman Dewis was hired to take the XJ13 out to the high banks of MIRA to film a commercial. The car had been untouched since 1967, and the dry rotted tires gave out while going 140 mph around the banking. Dewis survived, but the car was destroyed.

Years later, Edward Loades and his company Abbey Panels restored the car into near pristine condition, at which point it was placed into the British Motor Museum.

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