may choose to append at the bottom of that page.
(moved to Continuation Page 3 on 30 Jan 01)
SS and Jaguar Cars Continuation Page 4:
The SS One "Alpine" Controversy.
XK-120 and Mk. VII and later Jaguar (not SS) cars.
We had interrupted the flow of this page to advise that 1935 SS1 Alpine Sports
Tourer WS 5777, chassis 248952, had just come available in England. The
owner's agent advised that it has been under a sheet for some 15 years now and
comes complete with the the original log book from March 1935 and apparently was a
prototype Alpine rally car used for development but was used in the Scottish rally and
was tested at Brooklands by A. G. Douglas Clease and Rivers Fletcher (there exists a
letter from Rivers Fletcher to this effect) (as of 11/12 Jan 04):
(cropped from Jan 04 photos by owner's agent - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on pictures for much larger images.]
Latest News (12 Jan 04 late) - a new battery and fresh oil, fuel drained and
bowl cleaned, a little squirt of alcohol into the carbs, and with the first turn after
fifteen years, she was away and running, sounding so mechanically quiet as to be
amazing [except that I (SB,III) am not amazed; these cars are incredibly tractable).
However, I am advised (as of 03 Feb 04) that the car was snapped up almost instantly,
and, as of 04 Feb 04, learned that it went to Tom
Zwakman.
GREAT GOOD NEWS!
SS and Jaguar Museum in the U.S.!
(moved here from Continuation Page 2 on 29 Apr 02)
06 Jan 99 (AP) - Ford Motor Company gave a $1.5 million dollar check to Jaguar North America to open a Jaguar museum in Mahwah, New Jersey!
(Mahwah is some 20 miles north-northwest from Times Square, about 10 miles west of the Hudson River along the New York State border, just off Route 17 and the New York State Thruway Exit 15 at Suffern)
The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust has also opened a museum in Coventry {about which more should follow shortly}.
Jaguar Cars, Limited - the Company.
(moved here from Continuation Page 2 on 29 Apr 02)
On my return from my trip to Old Blighty in October of 1998, I located, by accident, the
site of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
Limited*, with a wealth of info. and it's parent page,
JagWeb, "the web-site for companies specialising in all aspects of Jaguar cars",
with Jag books. They are now affiliated with Jaguar Cars, whose two
jaguar.com and jaguarcars.com
Websites appear to be (understandably, if regretably) solely sales oriented.
However, it is not true; clicking on the North America icon brings you
to the U. S. page,
with a Legacy icon (what a word to use!) on which to click, which, in
turn, takes you to a fair history section with the very strange image of a Mk V bonnet
and cap with a Jaguar figure mounted (I can easily distinguish the model by the faired
headlamps); if it was odd of God to choose the cod (a Boston gag), it was odder of
Jaguar-USA to choose the Mk V to exemplify classic Jags! Far better, rather, to
go back to either home page and click on Europe and then on Great
Britain (Union Jack flag), or go directly to the
Jaguar-UK page (quite slow-loading), and then click on Heritage and
then on The Jaguar Story, whereby one comes to a very respectable history,
indeed, by era, with great illustrations!
As the "Master Nitpicker", I did run across an omission; Jaguars do not show the
XK-120M variant (dual exhausts and wire wheels - I had a '54 M).
There are also icons for Classic News and JDHT Online, which land
one on the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust pages, where (would you believe?) they
also display a Mk V! Many parts for old Jags are offered.
* - The Trust has opened a museum in Coventry - I haven't looked into this yet.
The advert, giving the official change of name from SS Cars to Jaguar
Cars, to which I refer on the previous page, was on page 21 of the 25 May 1945 issue
of THE AUTOCAR and reads as follows (verbatim, including odd
wording, spacing, and lack of commas and periods/fullstops, etc.):
S S Cars Ltd
change name to
Jaguar Cars Ltd
Since 1935 our cars have been produced under the name
of Jaguar, the name by which they have become known through-
out the World. We have, therefore, decided to adopt the
same name for the Company, a decision which has been largely
influenced by the Company's Distributors and Dealers who
are enthusistically in favour of the change. Certificate
of change of name was issued on 9th April, 1945.
Jaguar
{these two lines in script}
The finest car of its class in the world
{Jaguar winged badge}
JAGUAR CARS LIMITED • COVENTRY
Let me add a specific detail here, before going ahead with the brief history which
follows; the 1931 brochures for the then-new SS cars, the S.S. I and S.S. II,
specifically state that "The Chassis is specially manufactured by the Standard
Motor Company, exclusively for the Swallow Coachbuilding Company". The
brochures are from Swallow; I'll have to do my homework to determine just exactly
when William Lyons formed SS Cars, Ltd..
A Brief History of the SS-1
(moved here from Continuation Page 2 on 29 Apr 02)
Excerpted from an article in the June 1961
NEWS & TECHNICAL BULLETIN
[William E. (Bill) Summers bought his 1934 SS-1 "Alpine" Sports Tourer in 1946.
He was considered the leading expert on SS cars in the U.S. I met him at an
early Classic Car Club of America meet ca. 1959 or 1960 (when I had the Mk. IV
drophead). He passed away several years later. The tourer was
originally a rallye car, bearing license plate AYP-975, and its 2½-litre 20hp engine was
fitted with twin R.A.G. carburettors. Later, in 1937, the Works fitted it with one
of the first 3½-litre engines. That engine died in 1959 and was replaced by Bill
with a 1957 XK-140MC engine with leMans modifications, XK transmission, etc.
It had a calculated top speed of 145mph and was clocked at 125mph with over three
inches of pedal travel left. Bill wrote the article excerpted here.]
In its 31 Jul 31 issue, the Autocar announced Swallow Coachbuilding
Co., Ltd., was cooperating with Standard Cars, Ltd., to create an entirely
new automobile, with Swallow bodies and low-slung, special (meaning non-standard)
Standard chassis. The first car appeared at Stand #72 at the Olympia Motor
Show in Oct 31. It was a show-stopper, a long, low, sexy coupé with seating
for four and a sliding roof, at a vaguely-affordable price. The 1932 production
models came in 16 and 20 hp versions. The car {was less than practical and}
was redesigned in 1933. The open Sports Tourer version appeared in March of
that year. In 1934, the tread was widened. Also, the '33s were
improved with true (instead of occasional) rear seats and a longer wheelbase (up 7"
to 119").
Oh, good grief! - I just read the Swap Section at the back of that June 1961
issue! There's a late Mk. V saloon for $500, a '47 Mk. IV RHD saloon
for $1,500, and a 2½-litre Mk. IV drophead for $1,750, plus a
3½-litre Mk. V engine for $100! Shop Manuals for the Mk. IV and Mk. V
were in stock at Jaguar of Chicago for CJA members at $3.62 and $7.25, respectively!
I think I may be ill!
{More to follow - technical details - also, the article said it would be continued
the following month, but I only have the one issue}
Speaking of being ill, here are SS adverts pasted up from page xxxvii of a supplement
to THE AUTOCAR of 11 Oct 1935:
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image.]
Just look at those prices! H. C. Paul is offering a 1935 S.S.I Special Alpine
Tourer for £142. 10.-; wonder which car it is! Also, note the usage of periods
and "I" and "II".
Here's a current (26 May 03) shot of an unrestored 1933 SSII in England:
(privately furnished - all rights reserved)
The bonnet badge reads "SS TWO".
Can anyone supply any background or technical data on this amazing survivor?
SS and Jaguar Miscellany - continued
(moved here from the main SS Jags page on 19 Sep 03)
That Vanderbilt Cup caper in the XK120M was moved to the
Jaguar page on 12 Jan 2004.
[The XK120M developing a pinhole leak in the right rear of the petrol (gas) tank was
moved to the Jaguar page on 12 Jan 04}]
Old Photos
On 16-17 Sep 03, I starting digging up some more great detailed shots of old SS and
Jaguar cars that I took in the mid '50s and on. They are in no particular order
but let's start with a color photo, taken at the
Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society at
Case Western Reserve University in mid-Sep 1988, of an SS-100 on display:
(Sep '88 photo by and © 1988/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Next, some photos, dated May '61, of a sad Mark IV in an unspecified location,
probably somewhere here on Long Island:
(May '61 photos by and © 1961/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Hey; I'll bet that's at my old friend John's Gulf station at the north end of Hempstead,
just off Franklin Avenue south of the Garden City border; gotta check that; that just
might be my '57 Anglia by the gas pump.
Jumping back a year, here are four photos of a slew of Mk IV cars, printed in Jun '60
and taken at an unknown car lot on Long Island (NOT the ones where I bought or
sold my pre-owned Mk. IV, Mk. V, or XK-120M):
The radiator badge of that last would be featured above except that I can not bring
up enough of the image; it is an elusive 1½-litre Jag!
It is the car nearest the street. Odder still, that's my father on the far left in the
second shot above, and he normally never accompanied me on my automotive
window shopping (and certainly not in a business suit, even though that was his
normal attire); all I can figure is that we were going somewhere and stopped to gawk
together. Also, that's NOT my Mk IV DHC at the back; mine already had the
three-point sealed beam headlight conversion. Here's an unsuccessful blowup
of the 1½-litre badge; it reads "1½-litre" (really!):
Note also the difference between the big Lucas P-100 headlamps on the 2½-
and 3½-litre cars and the smaller Lucas P-90 units on the 1½-litre car, as
well as that between the standard P-100 lamps and those with the three-point
sealed beam conversion.
Then, on that same roll, and unprovenanced, is this ad for the export of the one-off
1939 SS100 Fixed Head Coupé that wound up with Gordon Shapiro:
(ca. Jun '60 photos by and © 1960/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{Photos of my Mark V saloon and XK120M drophead coupé
were moved to the Jaguar page
on 30 Aug 04 and 12 Jan 04 respectively.}
Now we jump again, forward a month, to three carefully-documented photos; these
were shot on 09 Jul 1960 at the 1960 CCCA Grand Classic (in the Morristown, New
Jersey, armory, as I recall) and show a 1937 Brooklands SS Jaguar AND (wonder of
wonders!) Bill Summer's 1934 SS1 "Alpine" Tourer:
(09 Jul '60 photos by and © 1960/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
JAGUAR Mk. IV DROPHEAD PHOTOS
I had thought these photos, printed in May 1960,
were of my own Jaguar Mk. IV drophead coupé but, on closer examination, find that
they either are not or are of it after full restoration (unlikely). To my recollection,
I never saw my car after I sold it, although, as recounted elsewhere, it was (at least
originally) restored with my Rube Goldberg gimmicks intact (right-hand roof latch,
oversize holder for NY State license plate with MG light, etc.). This car shows
no such latch and it has the original-type tri-point lamp holders in its Lucas P-100s.
Also, I did not have that 1958 NY State license plate. How embarassing; these
are my photographs and I haven't the foggiest notion where I took them or whose
car it might be!
The car is definitely post-WWII; see the narrrow spear. If we could view the
boot and see if there is a spacer between the boot lid and the spare t(i)(y)re well
cover, we'd be even more certain.
So, the photos pose a mystery for me. Regardless, they merit posting as
exemplary of the marque and model; I have annotated them where a feature is
noteworthy:
You can see the sliding clip at the bottom of the grille's central vertical rib; it covers the
place where the starting crank is fitted and slides up to reveal the hole.
The nearly-hidden trafficator slot shows best on this shot; just behind the door
opening.
You can clearly see the crank and wood-covered gearbox for the windscreen centered on the dash,
flanked by dual ashtrays (which I used for screws and bulbs).
Wow; there are controls I don't even recognize any longer!
[Flaps and landing gear locks?]
Now wait just a cotton-pickin', dog-bone minute, here!
The photos that follow are of a different car! Compare the headlamps
- those above have the original tri-point mounts and those below have the
sealed-beam conversion. It's highly unlikely to be mine, though because I
always had a Maryland plate (from the '49 Chrysler I traded) mounted, and that with
the S.R.T.B. (Susquehanna River Toll Bridge) plate fitted above it on the front.
Also, I do not recognize the background in either set of photos.
Notice also the horrible radio antenna mounting and door mounted rear-view mirror
(uh-oh - those are the way I did mine!) and the two different
ways the fog lamps are mounted.
On several photos, you can clearly see the folding window channels that kept the car
snug in the winter, lying flat against the top of the doors.
It is mind-boggling today to realize that an identical twin to this car was my everyday
car back then!
Even better yet, one is now enshrined at the
Gilmore Car Museum (which is also home to the
Classic Car Club of America Museum - revenge is sweet)
in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Karen Parker caught it:
(Aug 2004 photo by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
I have no idea if the Gilmore car is my old one;
probably not.
{Photo of friend's 1999 XK8 moved to the Jaguar page on
12 Jan 04}
This
Jag ya just gotta see! Shades of the catamount I saw in upstate
New York
(see my Adirondack page).
Obligatory courtesy link to the
Classic Jaguar Association
(22 Nov 01 - sorry I'd omitted this).
Lots more apocrypha and good hints follow on Continuation Page 2 apocrypha.
Stay tuned!
NOTE:
You may also wish to visit the preceding SS and Jaguar Cars
and succeeding Continuation Page 2, and
Continuation Page 3 pages, as well.
Cyclops fans; see Cyclops on my Automotive page!
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S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of SS and Jaguar pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004,
2006
- All rights reserved.
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