1938 SS Cars SS 100 Coupe

Launched in 1936, the SS 100 was the first high-performance model produced by SS Cars Limited and used a new Harry Weslake-developed overhead-valve engine in a shortened SS1 chassis. The SS 100 was capable of over 100 mph, and many of these open sports cars were raced by amateur drivers of the prewar period. A more powerful 3.5-liter engine was introduced in 1938 and placed in a stiffer chassis. Nearly 200 2.5-liter cars and 116 3.5-liter cars were built before production ceased at the outbreak of the war. A few of these more powerful SS 100s received stylish bodies by fashionable European coachbuilders of the time, and this example was bodied by Hermann Graber of Berne, Switzerland, for a Geneva customer, Monsieur Dionisotti in May 1938. It is a one-off two-door, two-window, five-seater coupe body. Each owner since has been well documented. It remained in Europe until it was brought to the United States in the 1960s. The current owner acquired the car in 2010. A restoration was begun in 1987, but after the car was dismantled, the work was halted for six years. Another collector then purchased the parts and rebuilt the coupe after a great deal of research. It was shown at Pebble Beach in 1994 and won a Class Award. It has since been restored again and repainted in this Silver Gray.

The car rides on a 120-inch wheelbase and is powered by a 3,485 cc OHV six-cylinder engine with dual SU carburetors developing 125 hp, coupled to a Moss 4-speed manual gearbox. It is fitted with semi-elliptic leaf springs and four-wheel drum brakes.