File:Jaguar SS 2.5 Cabriolet (1938) (49328686881).jpg

Portuguese Coach Museum Parking, Lisbon, Portugal

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OVERVIEW

Manufacturers Cars Ltd

Also calledSS Jaguar 2½ Litre 100 Model [1]

Production1936–1940

Body and chassis

ClassSports car (S)

Body style: open two-seater or in US Roadster

Coupé (prototype only)

POWERTRAIN

Engine2663 cc (3485 ccs from 1938)

straight-6 overhead valve[3]

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase104 in (2,642 mm) [3]

Length153 in (3,886 mm) [3]

Width63 in (1,600 mm) [3]

CHRONOLOGY

Predecessors 90

SuccessorJaguar XK120

The SS Jaguar 100 is a British 2-seat sports car built between 1936 and 1940 by SS Cars Ltd of Coventry, England.

The '100' was so named to reflect the theoretical 100 mph maximum speed of the vehicle.

In common with many products of the thirties, the adoption of an animal name was deemed appropriate, and once approved by Sir William Lyons the name "Jaguar" was given to a new saloon car in 1936, and from that point to all the cars.

Following the Second World War, because of the Nazi connotations then attached to the initials "SS", the company was renamed Jaguar in 1945.

CONSTRUCTION

A publicity shot of CKV250 outside the SS Cars building in 1937. This is considered to be the first recorded use of the Jaguar 'leaper' mascot.

The chassis had a wheelbase of 8 feet 8 inches (2.64 m), and was essentially a shortened version of the one designed for the 2.5-litre saloon, a car produced in much greater numbers, and first seen in the SS 90 of 1935.

When leaving the factory it originally fitted 5.50 or 5.25 × 18 inch tyres on 18-inch wire wheels. The suspension was on half-elliptical springs all round with rigid axles.

The engine was a development of the old 2.5-litre Standard pushrod unit converted from side valve to overhead valve with a new cylinder head designed by William Heynes and Harry Weslake.

The power output was increased from 70 bhp (52 kW) to 100 bhp (70 kW). Twin SU carburettors were bolted directly to the cylinder head. In 1938 the engine was further enlarged to 3.5 litres and the power increased to 125 bhp (93 kW). The four-speed gearbox had synchromesh on the top 3 ratios. Brakes were by Girling. The complete car weighed just over 23 cwt (2600 pounds, 1150 kg).

On test by the Autocar magazine in 1937, the 2.5-litre (20 RAC hp rating) car was found, with the windscreen lowered, to have a maximum speed of 95 mph (153 km/h) and a 0–60 mph (97 km/h) time of 13.5 seconds. With the 3.5-litre (25 RAC hp rating) the top speed reached the magic 100 mph (160 km/h) with a best of 101 mph (163 km/h) over the quarter-mile and the 0–60 mph (97 km/h) coming down to 10.4 seconds.

In 1937 the 2.5-litre car cost £395 and in 1938 the 3.5-litre £445. The coupé, of which only one was made, was listed at £595. A few examples were supplied as chassis-only to external coachbuilders.

LEGACY

Widely considered to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing Jaguar cars it is also one of the rarest, with only 198 of the 2.5-litre and 116 of the 3.5-litre models being made. Most stayed on the home market but 49 were exported.

Cars in good condition will now regularly fetch in excess of £300,000. A near Concours example was sold by auctioneers Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed back in 2007 for £199,500 but largely because of the rarity, auction prices for the SS100 have risen very strongly since then.

More recently a perfectly restored example and former Pebble Beach Concours winning 1937 S.S. Jaguar 100 3½ Litre Roadster - was sold by Gooding & Co. on 17 August 2010 at their Pebble Beach auction. It fetched an astonishing £666,270 ($1,045,000).

It was on an SS100 that the famous Jaguar 'leaper' was first prominently displayed, despite an inauspicious start. In mid-1936 the first version of the Jaguar vehicle mascot was apparently described by the founder of the company as "looking like a cat shot off a fence".

A later publicity photograph of the new Model 100 "Jaguar" (registration mark CKV 250) parked outside the offices of SS Cars Ltd in early 1937 shows a revised Jaguar 'leaper' mascot mounted on the radiator cap. It is this more stylised 'leaper' that became the basis for subsequent mascots and the trademark for Jaguar Cars Ltd that has been used to the present day.

The unnamed owner of the Belgravia vintage car dealer in James Leasor's 'Aristo Autos' novels, 'They Don't Make Them Like That Any More', 'Never Had a Spanner on Her' and 'Host of Extras' drives an SS100, and the car features prominently in the books.