As of today, Jaguar Cars, has gone through 87 years, looking back at 1935-2015, Jaguar Cars has elegantly gone through 80 years of history, at the beginning of the birth of the brand, the founder Sir William Lyons only used the word Jaguar as an integral part of the car name. It wasn't until the end of World War II that the word was upgraded to the official name of the entire company. For 80 years, Jaguar Motors has always insisted on creating luxury models with the elegant temperament of the British aristocracy, and at the same time, it has also been a prominent player in the world's top car racing field, so let's review the legendary history of this British luxury car brand.
Similar to the development of many car brands, Jaguar Motors' predecessor" Swallow Company did not start out as an automobile business, it was initially a company that manufactured motorcycle sidecars, and gradually began to design and build bodies for models under well-known car brands. In 1932, the Swallow introduced the first car belonging to its own brand, but the good times were short-lived, and the two founders, Leons and Wormsley, parted ways, and Lyons re-formed the S.S. Automobile Company. S.S. introduced the first model with the word "Jaguar" in its name in 1935, and just as the company was booming, World War II broke out and all business related to automobile manufacturing was forced to stop. After the war, Lyons changed the company name to Jaguar in 1945 and Jaguar cars were officially introduced. As for where the jaguar name came from, why the company name was changed from S.S. to Jaguar, we will tell you about it in the Jaguar brand history review (part 1).
1. The two started a partnership and started from the production of motorcycle sidecars (1921-1927)
Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar Motors, was born on 4 September 1901 in the industrial city of Blackpool in north-west England. William Jr. came from a wealthy Irish immigrant family, his father owned a musical instrument shop, and his grandfather was the owner of a factory. However, William Jr. did not want to inherit the family business, he had a strong interest and talent in mechanics from an early age, and after graduating from secondary school, he was given the opportunity to work as an engineering apprentice at the Crossley Motor Company in Manchester. During his time as an apprentice, William Jr. continued to study at technical school.
In 1919, at the age of 18, William Lyons left Manchester to return to his hometown of Blackpool, where he found a job as a car sales consultant. In early 1921, William Lyons moved in near his home, William Walmsley, both of whom had the same name, William, but the latter was 10 years older than Lyons, who had joined the army during World War I and suffered a leg injury during the war, but Wormsley was also well-off, his father was in the coal business, so after the war, Wormsley returned to the family business and began work related to coal transport vehicles. And from this accumulated a lot of knowledge about the principles of body manufacturing.
In his spare time, William Wormsley worked on and built a motorcycle sidecar with a bullet-like streamlined body with eight edges. This shape was absolutely unique at the time, and only Harley-Davidson in the United States had a similar design, and Wormsley named the motorcycle shouldercar "Ot-as-Ell". Soon, Ot-as-Ell was spread in the local motorcycle circle, and many motorcycle enthusiasts wanted to own it, including William Lyons. In April 1921, William Wormsley officially registered the Ot-as-Ell design and accepted reservations for £28.
However, with William Wormsley's personal craftsmanship and the assistance of his wife, it took them a week to create a cross-fight. William Leons saw an opportunity and persuaded William Wormsley to partner with him. With the security of both fathers, the two received a total of £1,000 in venture capital from the bank, and on 2 September 1922, The Swallow Sidecar Company, a partnership between Lyons and Wormsley, was officially established on Bloomfield Avenue in Blackpool.
The company started with just four employees and gradually grew to dozens. The company's first octagonal Model 1 was so popular that in November 1922, Lyons and Wormsley loaded the Model 1 onto the Brough Superior, known as the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles," which they rode to the London Motorcycle Show. In the next two years, "Swallow" Company launched a number of products, including the pentagonal Model 4 with a long tail and the diamond-shaped Model 6 called the "shoveler".
However, with the increase of orders, the company's production capacity soon could not keep up, so they rented additional plants nearby, but before long, the existing manpower and material resources could not meet the needs of production. In 1926, Wormsley's coal boss father generously helped the two buy a building on Cocker Avenue in Blackpool as a new factory building. After the company moved to Coca Street, in addition to producing motorcycle shoulders, they also added business related to car bodies, such as sheet metal spray paint, exterior, interior renovation, etc. At the same time, "body manufacturing" was added to the company name, becoming Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company.
Swallow's first car business was to repair the body of an autoceplo-Daimler accident car, which was not difficult for them, and the workers quickly restored the vehicle to its new condition. After a period of experimentation, Lyons and Wormsley were no longer satisfied with just doing car repairs, and they began to dream of owning their own car brand. However, the company did not have the ability to manufacture complete vehicles at that time, and could only customize the body for other car brands first.
At that time, the Austin 7 model of Austin Motor Company was selling very well in the United Kingdom due to its low price and reliable performance, and its popularity was equivalent to the status of the Ford Model T in the United States, but the car lacked some personality in appearance. Lyons and Wormsley felt that this was an opportunity, so without the authorization of Austin Motor Company (if you want to customize the body for the existing model, you need to obtain prior approval from the other party, otherwise it is an infringement), managed to buy a batch of Austin 7 model chassis through dealer channels, and commissioned Cyril Holland, a genius designer who had just joined the "Swallow" company, to design a new body for the Austin 7 2-seater Tourer model. Holland quickly completed the first draft.
II. Involved in automobile manufacturing, partners parting ways (1927-1935)
In May 1927, the Swallow Company officially unveiled their new bodywork for the Austin 7 model, which was characterized by a two-tone body with bright colors, a detachable soft top, and a rounded rear. After seeing the new work, although Austin Motor Company proposed some changes, to the delight of Leons and Wormsley, their product was finally recognized and named the Austin 7 Swallow Tourer for £175. As soon as the new car was launched, it was well received and orders poured in.
As the business grew, swallow companies gradually could not balance the production of motorcycle shoulders and car bodies at the same time, apparently Lyons and Wormsley realized that the four-wheel field had greater potential for development in the future, so they made the decision to concentrate mainly on the production of car bodies, and at the same time removed the word "shoulder bucket" from the company name and renamed swallow coachbuilding company. Even so, companies can only assemble up to 12 cars a week, and they need larger plants to meet production.
In 1928, Lyons and Wormsley moved the company to Coventry, the heart of the British automobile industry, where they used an abandoned World War I arsenal as a new factory. After the relocation, the company's production capacity has increased by more than 4 times, significantly increasing to the level of 50 vehicles per week, and the product has newly developed the Austin 7 Swallow Saloon with a two-color hardtop body. Their products were favored by Henlys, one of the largest car dealers in the UK at the time, and the other side ordered 500 Austin 7 Swallow Tourer and Austin 7 Swallow Saloon models in one fell swoop, greatly increasing the brand awareness of "Swallow" company.
The following year, Swallow Body Manufacturing further expanded the market and designed a new body for Fiat, Standard and Swift Motors, and this year they also made their debut at the British Motor Show. In addition, Lyons and Wormsley fulfilled their long-cherished wish in 1929 to create the first concept car belonging to their own brand. The new car was named SS, which is an abbreviation for Standard Swallow, because the chassis and power system of the car were all purchased from the british veteran car company Standard Motors, and then matched with the body designed and manufactured by "Swallow" itself. According to the needs of development, the "Swallow" company was again renamed swallow coachbuilding Company Limited on October 1, 1930.
Fast forward to the 1930s, and in the first two or three years, Swallow actively developed new cars of its own brand, while continuing to undertake the work of creating bodies for other brand models, such as the Austin 7 model with the Sway body, which was produced until 1932, with a total of about 3500 vehicles. In addition, Swallow designed the body for the Hornet model of the Wotherley brand, which is the first time they have built a body for a model equipped with an in-line 6-cylinder engine. In January 1931, hornet two-seater standard edition models with the "swallow" body were first launched, followed by a four-seater standard version and a two-seater/four-seat special edition, which lasted until the summer of 1933, with a total of more than 500 units built.
Swallow's first production model, the SS 1, was first publicly unveiled at the London Motor Show in 1931, with a front-facing rear-drive format with a body size of 4720mm long, 1613mm wide and a weight of 1043kg. The new car was officially put into production in 1932 for £310, but its luxurious shape made it look like a £1,000 car, but compared to the attractive shape, the SS 1's power performance was not outstanding, with only a 48-horsepower 2.0L 6-cylinder engine or a 62-horsepower 2.5L 6-cylinder engine, with a top speed of 121km/h. In the same year, Swallow also introduced the smaller SS 2 model with a 1.0L 4-cylinder engine for £210.
In July 1933, Swallow further enriched the product line of the SS 1 and SS 2 models, adding the Tourer version to the original Coupe version, and upgrading the chassis suspension system of the car. To verify the reliability of the vehicle, a team of three SS 1 Tourers also took part in the challenging Alpine Rally, the first time swallows had been involved in motorsport. Although it failed to win in the first year, the Swallow team won the team award in the second year, which enhanced the reputation of the SS 1/SS 2 model range.
Also in 1933, William Wormsley, one of the company's founders, asked for a break-up out for personal development. So on October 26, 1933, William Lyons registered a company called S.S. Motors(S.S.). Cars Limited) new venture. After several months of preparation, the new company began to operate on February 1, 1934, and after a series of capital operations, the company completed the acquisition of Swallow Body Manufacturing Co., Ltd. on July 31, 1934, and officially became a public company in January 1935. William Wormsley, on the other hand, chose to start his own business, starting Airlite Trailer and Coventry Steel Caravans.
Despite the drastic changes at the company level, the development and production of model products has not been affected. In 1934, the SS 1/SS 2 model line underwent a mid-term overhaul, with notable changes including a 50mm increase in body width for the SS 1 model, a widening of the wheelbase for improved driving stability, an improvement in front legroom, and a 53 hp 2.1L engine and a 67-horsepower 2.7L engine in the powertrain. The SS 2 model is equipped with a 1.3L engine and a 1.6L engine, and the transmission has added a synchronizer. In addition, the SS 1 model added an Airline Coupe version, which produced a total of 624 units. The SS 1/SS 2 models were produced until 1936, with a total of about 4,200 units built.
3. S.S. Company was established, and "Jaguar" was used in the name of the car (1935-1940)
In 1935, the S.S. Car Company introduced several new cars, including the SS 1 1/2 Litre and SS 2 1/2 Litre, which can be seen as successors to SS 1 and SS 2. The SS 1 1/2 Litre is equipped with a smaller body, available in Saloon and Drophead Coupe versions, with body sizes of 4390mm× 1660mm×1520mm and wheelbase of 2860mm. The car's powertrain was originally equipped with a 1.6-liter engine, but after the 1938 redesign, it was replaced with a 1.8-liter engine, and the transmission system was matched with a 4-speed manual transmission, and the maximum speed could reach more than 113 km/h.
The SS 2 1/2 Litre is equipped with a larger body, also available in Saloon and Drophead Coupe versions, with a body length of 4720mm, a width of 1680mm, and a wheelbase of 3020mm, which was increased to 3050mm after the 1938 redesign. Compared with the SS 1 1/2 Litre model, the lengthened part of the car is mainly to carry the larger 2.7-liter inline 6-cylinder engine, and the driving space is actually the same as that of the SS 1 1/2 Litre model. The 1938 remodeling also added the SS 3 1/2 Litre model, which shared chassis and bodywork with the SS 2 1/2 Litre, but was equipped with a more powerful 3.5-liter in-line 6-cylinder engine with a maximum power of up to 124 horsepower.
In addition, S.S. Motors introduced the first mass-produced sports car, the SS 90, in March 1935, and the 90 in the name of the car represented that the car could reach a top speed of 90 mph, or about 140 km/h. The SS 90 is 3810mm long, 1600mm wide, has a wheelbase of 2640mm and weighs 1143kg. Despite its elegant and sporty shape, the car's matched powertrain is still not very powerful, and the maximum power of the 2.7L 6-cylinder engine is only 67 horsepower. The SS 90 sold for £395 and only 23 were built in total.
In addition to the above three new cars, William Lyons also unveiled the new sports car SS Jaguar 100 at the Mayfair Hotel in Paris on the eve of the 1935 London Motor Show, the first time the term "Jaguar" appeared in the name of S.S. and has since been used in all of its models. Regarding the origin of the name, it is said that William Lyons once visited his friend MG (Morris Garage' abbreviation) car owner Cecil Kimber, saw a jaguar sculpture on the other person's desk, Lyons liked the image of elegance and speed, so he decided to add the word Jaguar to the name of his new sports car.
However, although "Jaguar" was used by William Lyons to name the new car in 1935, the recorded "jumper" image of the front of the car first appeared in 1937, when a promotional video was filmed in front of S.S. for an SS Jaguar 100 with license plate number CKV250. It is also worth mentioning that since S.S. Automobiles purchased a steel plate stamping body manufacturing company called Motor Panels in the late 1930s, its models after 1938 no longer use wooden body frames with steel plate bodies, but are all upgraded to steel skeletons with steel plate bodies.
The SS Jaguar 100 is an improvement over the SS 90 and also costs £395. Both cars have the same body width (1600mm) and wheelbase (2640mm), but the SS Jaguar 100 has a longer body length of 3886mm, and the weight of the car has increased slightly to 1150kg. The car's powertrain is still powered by a 2.7L in-line 6-cylinder engine, but after improvements by two talented engineers Bill Heynes and Harry Weslake, the maximum power has been increased to 99 horsepower, and the drivetrain is matched with a 4-speed manual transmission. The car has a maximum speed of 153 km/h and an acceleration time of 0-97 km/h of 13.5 seconds. The SS Jaguar 100 was produced until 1940, with a total of 198 units built.
In 1938, the SS Jaguar 100 model was newly equipped with a 3.5L engine, the new car was priced at 445 pounds, the maximum engine power was 124 horsepower, the top speed was 160 km/h, and the acceleration time of 0-97 km/h was 10.4 seconds, and a total of 116 models were built. The 3.5L version of the SS Jaguar 100 also has a Coupe by Graber Special Edition, which was built with only one and sold for £595.
The SS Jaguar 100 was definitely one of the most powerful British sports cars before the Second World War, and to prove its strength, it competed in the 1936 Alpine Road Rally, and the SS Jaguar 100, driven by the Wisdoms, won the race. Since then, the car has also participated in several auto races, and all of them have performed quite well. The 3.5-liter SS Jaguar 100 was also a competitive choice, with three 3.5L SS Jaguar 100 teams competing in the 1938 British RAC Rally, the most important car race in the United Kingdom, where Jaguar team won the team championship.
Fourth, the company affected by World War II was renamed Jaguar and its development was booming
On September 1, 1939, the German army attacked Poland, and on September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II broke out in full swing. Affected by the war, S.S. ceased all automobile manufacturing operations in 1940, and according to the needs of the army, the factory was converted to mass production of side-scroll motorcycles, during which a total of about 10,000 were built, and maintenance operations were carried out in conjunction with the maintenance business. Although the development of new technologies related to automobiles has not been interrupted, it can only be carried out in secret, and the main result of this period is that its soul engineer Bill Heynes completed the main design of the XK inline 6-cylinder engine, which later powered Jaguar cars for more than 40 years.
The war severely traumatized the British economy, and S.S. became one of the first car companies to resume production. On 23 March 1945, S.S. Motors was renamed Jaguar Cars Limited by a unanimous general meeting of shareholders. The name change was mainly because S.S. was also an abbreviation for the German Nazi SS (Schutz Staffel), which was easy to cause public resentment and was not conducive to the company's long-term development in the future.
At the same time, due to the extreme shortage of materials after the war, especially the steel supply was strictly controlled by the government, so that the production demand could not be met, Jaguar decided to sell the Motor Panels steel stamping body manufacturing company it bought before the war. It was also at that time that Jaguar's production began to rely entirely on external suppliers, with engines supplied by Standard Motors and bodies supplied by Pressed Steel, which became the foreshadowing of Jaguar's future acquisition by British Motor Corporation.
Jaguar's first post-war model, called the Mark IV, came in two body forms, the 4-door Saloon and the 2-door Drophead Coupe, but it wasn't actually a brand new model, but only changed the names of the three pre-war models, 1 1/2 Litre, 2 1/2 Litre, and 3 1/2 Litre. Of these, 1 1/2 Litre models were produced until 1949, with a total of 10,980 units, while 2 1/2 Litre and 3 1/2 Litre models were both produced until 1948, with 6281 and 3162 units, respectively.
At the 1948 Paris Motor Show, Jaguar unveiled two new models, the Mark V and the XK120, the former being the successor to the Mark IV and the latter being the successor to the SS Jaguar 100. Jaguar named the new car the Mark V in homage to the second Bentley model, the Mark V, designed by Bentley and produced by Rolls-Royce (in 1931, Rolls-Royce acquired Bentley), which built a total of 11 between 1939 and 1941.
Jaguar Mark V also has two body forms, Saloon and Drophead Coupe, with body sizes of 4762mm× 1765mm×1588mm and wheelbase of 3048mm. The car's powertrain is still powered by the Mark IV's 2.7L in-line 6-cylinder engine (maximum power 106 hp) and 3.5-liter inline 6-cylinder engine (maximum power 128 hp), matching a 4-speed manual transmission. In terms of performance, the 3.5L version of the Mark V (priced at 1263 pounds at the time) had a maximum speed of 146km/h, accelerated by 0-97km/h in 20.4 seconds, and consumed 15.5L per 100 km/h. The Jaguar Mark V achieved good sales, with a total of 10,466 units built between 1948 and 1951, of which the main model was the 3.5L version, with a total of 8791 units sold, while the 2.5-liter version sold a total of 1675 units.
In contrast, the XK120, as the "super" sports car of the time, won jaguar more praise. The car's streamlined body was designed by William Lyons, and the "XK" in the name indicates that the car's powertrain is equipped with Jaguar's newly developed XK series 3.4L inline 6-cylinder engine, with a maximum power of 162 horsepower, while the "120" means that the car's top speed can reach 120mph, about 193km/h. The car has an acceleration time of 0-97km/h in 10 seconds and a fuel consumption of 14.3L per 100km/ h, which is very amazing by the standards of the 1940s.
The Jaguar XK120 has a body size of 4394mm× 1562mm×1334mm and a wheelbase of 2591mm. The car was priced at £1,263 at the time, and the XK120 model produced a total of 12,055 units between 1948 and 1954. Among them, the initial 242 were made of wooden body skeleton with aluminum body, and after mass production in 1950, it became a steel body frame with a steel body, and the weight of the car increased by 51kg. The Jaguar XK120 was the fastest production car in the world at the time, and its racing version of the XK120S won three consecutive Alpine Cups, two British RAC car rally races, and finished in the top three in the Tourist Trophy in 1950.
The Jaguar XK120 also introduced two high-performance versions from 1951 onwards, with the XK120 M's engine up to 182 horsepower and the XK120 MC's engine up to 213 horsepower. It is also worth mentioning that in order to meet production needs, Jaguar rented the factory of The Daimler Company Limited in The Daimler Company Limited in 1950, and after several months of preparation and equipment commissioning, the new plant was officially put into operation in 1951.
Summary and Preview: In the history of the Jaguar car brand (Part I), we mainly review the situation of Jaguar Motors, an elegant gentleman from England, in the early days of its establishment and development, and mention that since the end of the Second World War, its production has been completely dependent on external suppliers. Such a development strategy has plunged Jaguar Automobile into an endless wave of mergers and acquisitions since the 1960s, and has since begun the development stage of "sending people under the fence". In the next article, we will continue to tell you the historical story of Jaguar Cars, so stay tuned.
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