1938 SS Cars SS 100 Roadster

William Lyons and William Wamsley established the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922 in Blackpool, England. Their first car debuted to the public at the Olympia Motor Show in London that year.

The range of sports cars built by the company that became SS Cars and then Jaguar evolved from the SS90 of 1935 to the SS100 2.5-liter of 1935 and finally to the SS100 3.5 liter of 1938. The exterior shape of these cars remained virtually unchanged, but many changes occurred under the simple, but effective body. These were the first S.S. cars to be called Jaguar. William Lyons said that the name represented the feline grace and elegance, power, and agility that set this car apart.

In 1936, Tommy Wisdom won the Alpine Trials in an SS100 and went on to race very successfully at Brooklands and Shelsley Walsh. Three SS100s won the team prize at the RAC Rally in 1937. When SS100 production was cut short by the Second World War in 1939 just 190 of the SS100 2.5-liter cars and 118 of the 3.5-liter variant had been constructed.

This car is a rare 'numbers-matching' example that was completed on December 14th of 1937 and sold in February 1938 to S. Walker of Dorset, England. The car remained in the United Kingdom until it was imported into the United States in 1958, spending the next 40 years in California. It was discovered in a junkyard prior to being purchased and restored by its current owner in April of 2005. Just 116 were produced.