Accessories

Jaguar Cars 1922 to 1940

Jaguar cars began in 1922, and Blackpool in Lancashire seemed an unpromising launch platform for a car that became as aspirational as it did.

In the years that followed the end of World War 1, Sir William Lyons, then known as Bill, appeared to be a young motorcycle sidecar manufacturer with delusions of grandeur.  He was ambitious to move up to cars, and in 1927, he used his Swallow Sidecar workers coach building skills to make bodies for Austin Sevens, giving them a status, they scarcely deserved.

His friends, Bertie Henly and Frank Hough, who were motor trade entrepreneurs, based at 91 Great Portland Street, London, sold the cars.

Henly boldly ordered five hundred cars, and to the bright young things in the west end of London, they were just the job, gleaming with chrome whilst other cars were just plain green or black.

Nevertheless, to the posh Brooklands crowd, even after the factory moved to Coventry, the Swallows and their successors the SS1 and SS2 were a bit indifferent.  They were derided for having a long bonnet and feeble engine.  Volume manufacturers such as Standard made most of their components, and enthusiasts who may not have known any better, refused to be taken in by cosmetic tricks such as two-tone paint and a low roofline.

They believed it was impossible to build a good car cheaply, and unaware that Lyons achieved it by keeping a tight control on unnecessary expenditure rather than skimping on production or materials.  As well as having a gift for how a car should look, Lyons drove a hard bargain with suppliers and costs were kept ruthlessly low.

Apprentices were an elite band of people who paid a premium to work there and they received such a sound training that the British motor trade and industry became littered with former Jaguar apprentices in high executive positions.

Lyons choice of SS as the name of his cars was something of a mystery.  He stated that SS was not a contraction of Standard Swallow or Standard Special, however, George Brough who made the Brough Superior and SS80 motorcycles, believed that Lyons got the idea from him.

Nothing caught the mood of the moment so well.  Ocean steamships were trendsetters, and the name SS carried no sinister ring, and Lyons began looking through lists of birds and animals before decided on the fastest creature with a name that could be applied to a car.

He chose the Jaguar, and once permission had been granted by Armstrong-Siddeley, the name was introduced for new models in September 1935, and until 1940, they were known as SS Jaguars.

Lyons asked publicity chief E W Rankin for a symbolic leaping jaguar mascot, after an accessory company produced one he disliked.  Rankin had said that it looked like a cat shot off a fence.

An artist by the name of Frederick Crosby was invited to provide a mascot, but unfortunately, the symbolic jaguar, which adorned the cars from 1935, may not have been a jaguar at all.  It first appeared at the 1930 Olympia motor show on an MG as a tiger.  It closely resembled a panther designed in the 1920s by Casimir Brau and it was certainly a close relation to the one Crosby had produced for Cecil Kimber, founder of MG.

The jaguar was almost identical in every respect, except for its rear paws, which were tucked up behind whilst MGs had them extended.  Whether Lyons and Rankin knew about the mascot on the MG was immaterial and Jaguar Cars was unabashed about the revision to its company history.  A company representative stated that it was an anatomically correct jaguar.

Up until 1939, even if a jaguar was not looked upon as a counterfeit, it was definitely not completely bona fide.  

About the Author

Dawn has been interested in classic motors since an early age. She has commenced researching different vehicles and manufacturers and has started a website to share this research.

All of her published research will be placed on her website http://www.classicmotorhistory.com and http://www.classicmotorhistory.com/blog

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