1935 SS Cars SS1

The Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in 1922 by William Walmsley and William Lyons, becoming S.S. Cars Limited in 1934, and Jaguar Cars in 1945. The company originally made motorcycle sidecars before developing bodies for passenger cars. The business extended under the ownership of S.S. Cars Limited, building complete cars made in association with Standard Motor Co., and many wore the model name 'Jaguar.'

At the Motor Show at Olympia in 1934, SS Cars Ltd appeared in the manufacturers' section rather than the coachbuilders' section of the exhibition. At the show was the Airline Saloon offered with either 16 or 20 horsepower engine options, the latter costing only a modest £5 extra. The Airline Saloon joined the Tourer and Four-light to complete the SS range. The 16 horsepower was based on that of the Standard Ensign and the SS1's low, under-slung chassis was designed by Lyons and supplied exclusively to Swallow by John Black's Standard Motor Company, which also provided the 2.1/2.6-litre six-cylinder side-valve engines and four-speed manual gearbox (with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears). It used a cruciform-braced chassis complete with an underslung rear axle, all-round semi-elliptic leaf-sprung suspension and cable-operated 12.5-in drum brakes. SS1 design elements included a long bonnet, cozy passenger compartment, and helmet-type front wings. The interiors housed a well-stocked dashboard, sunburst-pattern door cards and sculpted leather upholstery. The sporting persona coupled with better-than-average specification and reasonable pricing foreshadowed Jaguar's future and its success prompted the discontinuation of the Swallow-bodied cars in 1933.

Revisions in 1933 brought an uprated engine with alloy cylinder heads and improved manifolding. For 1934 the SS1 gained a new wide-track chassis and slightly enlarged Standard engines of 2,143cc and 2,663cc. Four body styles were offered with revised styling and in this, its final form, the SS1 remained in production until 1936, by which time 2,503 examples had been made.

The SS1 used either a 2- or 2.5-liter side-valve six-cylinder engine while the SS 2 used a 1-liter, four-cylinder side-valve engine. The SS90 had a 2.5-liter side-valve, six-cylinder engine and its name was derived from its claimed 90 mph top speed. The six-cylinder engine was installed in a short chassis of the SS2 and only 23 examples were made. The SS 100 arrived near the close of the 1930s and used either a 2.5- or 3.5-liter engine. A total of 198 examples were built with the 2.5-liter and 116 of the 3.5-liter.

by Daniel Vaughan | Sep 2021