Jaguar 3

Coventrys' finest

Photo: Redsimon • Licensed for reuse under CC BY 3.0

Swallow body fitted to a 1931 Austin Seven

Photo: Alan Raine • Used with permission

Jaguar SS100

Jaguar Motorcars have had a long and colourful history, going back to the earliest days of their founder William Lyons.

Born in Blackpool in 1901, Lyons spent his formative years working as a junior car salesman in his hometown when, in the summer of 1921, some new residents moved in across the road from his parents' home. A wealthy coal merchant from Stockport was retiring to the seaside town along with his 28 year old son, who was a keen maker of motorcycle sidecars. Very soon Lyons, a very keen motorcyclist, began to notice these streamlined, polished alloy sidecars being fitted and driven proudly away from his neighbours’ garage by other young enthusiasts, and although quite expensive, the young William Lyons purchased one for himself. The sidecars were called ‘Swallow', and the young former warrant officer who made them was William Walmsley.

Lyons had already decided to create a business of his own. Up to that point he was not quite sure what form that business would take. He had been thinking of making a modern gramophone, but then he saw the Swallow. He liked the product and could see ways of making it more cost effectively and in greater quantities, without sacrificing its appeal.

It took a great deal of convincing from the young Lyons for Walmsley to agree to go into partnership with him. Their fathers guaranteed them for £500 each at the bank and in early 1922 they were in business. On 4 September of that year, the same day Lyons came of age, the partnership became official with the formation of the Swallow Sidecar Company.

Expansion took place rapidly and in 1926 the first Swallow two seater car bodies were being built on Morris Cowley and Austin Seven chassis, the idea being to satisfy the market for an individual form of transport at low cost. Lyons, putting his sales skills to good use, showed his Austin Seven to Henleys, the London based dealers, who promptly ordered 500 Swallows - provided that a saloon was added to the range. In 1928, true to his word, this happened, and in that November the now named Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company moved out of its Blackpool home and into a bigger premises in Coventry, chosen due to its close proximity to the heart of the British motor industry.

In October 1929, the month of the Wall Street crash, Swallow took a stand at the London motor show, displaying low-roofed, high-bonneted saloons on FIAT, Standard and Swift chassis. Two years later came the first SS, a low long coupe built on a modified Standard chassis. The SS marque established a name for its looks and good value, enabling it to secure a strong foothold, while less purposeful models struggled for survival.

William Lyons bought out his partner in 1935, and from then on Lyons was in full control. His first action was to establish an engineering department under the newly appointed William Heynes who had arrived from the Humber. Development of Standard's engine by the independent consultant Harry Weslake was well underway, and Lyons’ visions for styling were taking positive form.

In September 1935 the first prototype overhead valve 2.7 litre six cylinder four door saloon was unveiled. Its complete price - £385, was little more than one third of the price of a 3.7 litre Bentley chassis alone. The SS Jaguar certainly did not pretend to be a Bentley, but everything but its price was uncomfortably similar for those at the Crewe based manufacturers.

Almost overshadowed by the saloon, the £395 SS Jaguar 100 two seater sports car was launched simultaneously. Up to that time the SS had developed a reputation for being sporty in looks but not performance.

The Swallow sidecar business continued up to and during the Second World War but was soon sold off afterwards. The car producing side, SS Cars Limited, was renamed Jaguar Cars Limited in 1945.

In 1948 a modernised version of the saloon, the Mark V, was introduced. It had a new chassis with Citroen inspired torsion bar independent front suspension developed by former ‘Bentley Boy' Walter Hassan, who had joined Heynes's small team in 1938. That chassis was to be the base for the new series of Jaguar saloons starting in 1950, with the Mark VII, powered by a brand new twin overhead camshaft, six cylinder, high performance engine:- the legendary XK unit.

The Jaguar XK engine, produced by the team Heynes, Hassan and chief designer Claude Baily, is at the heart of the Jaguar success story. It was first used in the XK 120 sports car, styled by Lyons and produced at short notice for the first post-war London motor show, in October 1948. The show car was in fact not fitted with a functional engine; but in the following spring it was demonstrated at 132.6mph on a specially closed section of the Ostend-Brussels motorway. Soon afterwards the XK 120, although intended as a touring sports car, won the first Silverstone production car race and the seeds of future racing successes were sown.

International motoring competitions were properly underway by 1950, but foreign teams were dominating the main events. Lyons said he would rather not compete than compete poorly, but a tentative run with near standard cars at Le Mans in 1950 convinced Bill Heynes and Raymond England, the company's new service manager, that a Jaguar could win convincingly. Lyons took little persuasion and the new XK 120C (‘competition' model) won Le Mans at its first attempt. The C type and its successor the D type provided Jaguar with a total of five victories at the Le Mans 24 hour race, plus numerous other successes despite being quite unsuitable for some circuits.

Racing provided prestige for Jaguar, which thrived on the exports it needed (mostly to North America) to expand, as Lyons wanted. The road cars proved fine rally winners too. And when touring car racing became popular, Jaguar immediately began to dominate, capitulating only to the great Ford onslaught in the 1960s. The outstanding touring car was the 3.8 litre Mark 2, a high performance development from Jaguar's first post war compact, the 1955 2.4 litre saloon. The Mark 2 was well suited to high speed rallies such as the Alpine and the Tour de France. Its last major accolade came at the end of 1963 when the German racer Peter Nocker was declared the first European touring car champion. His success was repeated twenty one years later by the British Tom Walkinshaw driving an XJS.

In 1961 came two significant new models; the classic E type (one of Lyons’ most inspired cars) and the Mark X, which would become the basis much later for a Daimler limousine. This was a time of acquisition; Lyons bought Daimler from BSA in 1960, Guy Motors of Wolverhampton in 1961 and Coventry Climax Engines in1963, moves that made the Jaguar Group one of the strongest in terms of its specialist engineering knowledge. The ultimate expression of this was the XJ 6 saloon, launched in 1968 and still being produced in name today, but now carrying an all-aluminium body shell.

In the meantime, the now Sir William Lyons had merged his company with the British Motor Corporation, a deal arranged personally between him and Sir George Harriman. Within two years however, British Motor Holdings was the underdog in the formation of British Leyland.

In 1973 Jaguar's new 5.3 litre engine (the world's only volume production overhead camshaft V12) was introduced and in 1972, after half a century at the helm, Sir William retired, having appointed former racing chief Raymond 'Lofty' England as chairman in his place. Raymond England retired in 1974 and the nationalisation of British Leyland followed.

In 1976 Jaguar entered the European Touring Car Championship with a Broadspeed prepared V12 Jaguar XJC. British Leyland wanted the car raced as soon as possible but it's debut was too early and although the car was fast, it was too heavy and under developed.

It was to take more than five years for Jaguar to become, once again, one of the world's finest car manufacturers, when Ford purchased Jaguar. With Ford’s huge resource and development facilities, and a range of models from a medium size saloon:- the X type, to a continent cruising coupe and convertible in the form of the XK 8 available with a 4.2 litre supercharged engine.

In 1985, Jaguar once more returned to racing and this time it was much more successful. After Tom Walkinshaw won the European Touring Car Championship with the XJS TWR were given the opportunity to build and prepare Jaguars for the World Sports Car Championship. Jaguar won the World Championship in 1988 and won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990.

In 2008, Jaguar was sold to the Indian based Tata Motors who have kept the company at the forefront of Automotive Design with the F Type and XF models.