Monday 8 April 2013

JAGUAR

History
[edit] Birth of the company
The 2.5-litre, 68 hp 1935 SS 90

The Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in 1922 by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley leading to SS Cars Ltd. In 1935 the SS Jaguar name first appeared on a 2.5-litre saloon,[8] sports models of which were the SS 90 and SS 100.

Cash was short after World War II, and Jaguar sold the plant and premises of Motor Panels, a pressed steel body manufacturing company they had acquired in the late 1930s when growth prospects seemed more secure. The buyer was Rubery Owen.[9] Nevertheless, Jaguar achieved relative commercial success with their early post war models; times were also tough for other Coventry-based auto-makers and the company was able to buy from John Black's Standard Motor Company the plant where Standard had built the six-cylinder engines it had been supplying to Jaguar.[9]
SS and Jaguar made 3.5-litre, 125 hp Mk IV drophead coupé

Jaguar made its name by producing a series of eye-catching sports cars, such as the XK 120 of 1949, developed into XK 140 and XK 150, and the E Type of 1961. These were all successful and embodied Lyons' mantra of "value for money".[citation needed] They were successful in international motorsport, a path followed in the 1950s to prove the engineering integrity of the company's products.

Jaguar's sales slogan for years was "Grace, Space, Pace",[citation needed] a mantra epitomised by the record sales achieved by the MK VII, IX, Mks I and II saloons and later the XJ6.

The core of Bill Lyons' success following WWII was the twin-cam straight six engine, a design conceived pre-war and realised while design staff at the Coventry plant were dividing their time between fire-watching (Coventry being a prime target of German bombers) and designing the new power plant.

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