Jaguar SS100. And a party

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Purchasing classics there

The Jaguar Daimler Club Holland is a club where they are not afraid of events that require a lot of work. And one of the biggest brains behind those exclusive events is Rob van Pernis.

And that's how it came to be

Happy Birthday SS Event

Sir William Lyons' birthday on September 4 is the reason to put the 'older' SS and Jaguars even more in the limelight. This year, however, September 4 falls on a Wednesday, so the party to celebrate the birthday of Sir William Lyons, the founder of the Swallow Side Car company and Jaguar, is on Saturday 31 August. The location is The Gallery in Brummen.
This day a special program has been put together entirely in the theme of the Swallow Austin Seven from year 1927 up to and including the Jaguar Mk IV from 1948.

And those SS models, they have a whole history

In fact, Swallow, which was founded in 1922, was the ancestor of Jaguar in direct line and via the 1933 division of SS Cars. 'SS' of course stood for 'Swallow Sidecars', later for Swallow Special. But through sir William Lyons himself, 'SS' for the pre-war 'Jaguars' already stands for 'Standard Swallow'. And that after the Second World War that brand name did not seem to be the height of tight marketing? So something was found on that. SS Cars became 'Jaguar'.

Sir Lyons had chosen that name according to tradition from 500 animal names. And it has certainly not been a bad choice.

But here it is about the SS cars up to and including the later Mk4s.

The foreplay

In anticipation of what is to come: For this event, the JDCH, Rob van Pernis, has done a huge heap of search and investigation. Because: "Who has such a pre-Jaguar?" "How do I find and reach those people?" And those were just a few basic questions. That was the start.

Rob van Pernis's search had been worthy of Inspector Morse. And he has solved his 'case' nicely. Apart from some loose ends.

Thanks to the RDW

Thanks to an extensive network and the pleasant cooperation of the RDW, we have succeeded in collecting a magnificent range of SS cars and their direct descendants. Even finding owners who cherished such beautiful things, but did not want you to share in it, had the advantage that a fairly complete register of cars and owners has now been set up.

Between 1 932 and 1936, SS Cars mainly used rolling undercarriages supplied by the company 'Standard', including Standard's engines. Both 'Williams' Lyons and Walmsley ensure that the supplied goods are provided with the most beautiful bodywork. Details were considered: the 'curls' of the bumpers were filled with lead. Against the shaking.

The carriage was the most important

Furthermore, the SS models were actually characteristic of cars made by a body builder. The looks were fantastic, the technology was quite conservative. A simple chassis, leaf springs and a proven good, but certainly not exotic engine. That block came from Standard, but Harry Weslake and William Heynes had cuddled the engine a little extra. At the end the SSsen had Weslake heads and double RAG carburetors.

Not only 'the show' Now also 'the Go!'

With that, the 'reputation' of the SS models became more for 'the show' than for 'the go!' were overcome. Thanks to Weslake, the 2,5 liter side valves were not strong 70, but 90 hp. Behind that block was a four-speed gearbox, the top three of which were synchronized. The drum brakes came from Girling and were operated by a rod system.

The SS1 with its Rudge-Witworth wire wheels was therefore a very beautiful automobile with reasonable performance. But he gave a lot of value for money. Because he was 'cheap' too. The 6 cylinder side valve under the hood thus came from Standard and delivered almost 50 hp from 2054 cc or 2552 cc and 63 hp. Later the powers became 53 and 62 pk.

Originally the SS was conceived as a four-seater with a fixed roof. But from March 1935, open two-seaters were also available. Those beauties were called SS90, where that number stood for the top speed in miles per hour. Incidentally, only 23 were made.

The evolution

In 1938, the production of saloons and dropheads evolved from coachwork (with wooden trusses) to steel and an 3½-liter engine was added to the range. The 2½-liter and 3½-liter cars had the same chassis and body design, although it was necessary to use a wider radiator for the 3½-liter version. The new 1½-liter for 1938 used the same bodywork as the six-cylinder cars, but on a shorter chassis and the new larger 1776 cc engine had head valves.

SS Jaguar 100 1938

The new open two-seater sports car bore the title: SS Jaguar 100. Only 198 of the 2½-liter and 116 of the 3½-liter models were made and with their then impressive top speed of 100 mph (160 km / h) and 0-100 km / h time of 11 seconds, the survivors are highly sought after. Also because they rarely come on the market.

The last Swallow

Dorothy Deen was the perfect example of a smart blonde. She was also an attractive young woman. And a smart business woman. Her father was Triumph in the US from A and saw a market for one Triumph TR + or a 'cheap' Jaguar beater. Frank Rainbow from Swallow Coachbuilding came into the picture. The result was a chassis made of torsionally rigid, chassis made of Reynolds 531 chrome molybdenum steel tubes on which around as many items as possible from Standard's warehouses Triumph. To give the whole a somewhat exotic European name, Dorothy's name was kindly corrupted in Doretti. And Dorothy took control of the marketing. She did it so successfully that Standard Triumphs Richardson began to see the Swallow Doretti as a competition for its own TRs. And at Jaguar, a major steel buyer of Reynolds, they saw the beautiful and luxurious Swallow Doretti as a nasty competitor for the XK 140. That was the end of the Swallow Doretti. They are made of 276. There are approximately 170 survivors.

Dial 'F' for 'fake'

The popularity of the legendary SS series is great. The demand exceeds the supply. The ever-flexible market forces have provided a cunning solution: 'replica' SSs have been made and are for sale. And pure 'counterfeits' that pretend to be real. The quality of the offer ranges from an SS100 on VW Beetle chassis to 'tribute' or 'recreation' cars that are (almost) indistinguishable from real ones. And the 'Panthers'. They can of course also be very desirable. But they are not authentic. And that gives an enormous tension at 'what is he worth? And: "what does it remain worth?"

If you have another veteran in your possession and have not yet been approached by Rob van Pernis, you can report to Rob van Pernis via

Jaguar SS100

Jaguar SS100

Jaguar SS100

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