Hi folks, noticing a car online brought some questions. The car is identified as being a “1934 Jaguar SS1 Touring Convertible” ( see https://www.beverlyhillscarclub.com/1934-jaguar-ss1-c-8579.htm ) with a nice group of pictures showing car details. The tops of the doors have a profile appearing different from what online photos of other SS1 cars show. The rear bodywork appears different from others also.
Can you enlighten on body variations and models that may have had such body parts?
For amusement, the car appears to come with what we might call a “short block” engine. In this case the block is short because the spark plugs are all sheared off to make it short.
Well,firstly, it’s a 1935 model year …chassis at least. It seems to be a mixture of parts from various cars or models. None of which was a tourer.
The doors and scuttle appear to have been modified from a saloon/coupe.
The front guards have skirts which were only on Airlines , but then so do the rears… now, but they aren’t Airline rear guards.
There isn’t enough there to make a viable proposition to end up with an original car.
It could be made into a nice period special using the chassis and mechanicals, but not at the US$60,000 asking price
Even if the panels were the right ones, they seem to be too badly gone to be much use. The wheels likewise would need replacing,
And the trunk on the back comes from who knows what.
The short motor… the blocks up to and inc 1936. were 1/4” shorter in height than subsequent blocks
You don’t need a toaster. You can do it yourself… start of with " Ladies and Gentlemen, The Queen"
Yesrs ago a friend had a young daughter and I taught her to toast the queen when ever she had anything to drink , Ungrateful mother, never thanked me for t.
hello at all of the SS 1 lovers : I can tell you the true story of my purchase of the Beverly Hills’ mystery car : it was for sale, a wreck, but there were 2 problems : not sure identity by the seller, not sure type for every expert, as all of you demostrated.
Working basically on Jaguar restorations , I sometimes collaborate with Beverly Hills trying to understand the full data of their jags for sale . This time I made pressure to them to have something more than nothing about this car : finally they found the original body tag, and from that moment I was ready to buy the car. I asked infos about that strange model to some UK experts, but nobody understood what it was. From my personal data I luckily had an idea of period , type , numbers and more . After contacting the Jaguar Heritage, I obtained almost all the data on the Heritage of this car. When the car will be in Europe, I will check the engine numbers. This car is a January 1935 SS1 20HP Tourer, sent in US immediately after its build. It seems to be a one-off with futuristic, for the period, things, to be seen in the later years. From close pictures , nothing seems changed , but all original.
Some parts are missing , but most of them are just now in my hands.
stay in touch
all the best
Ferruccio, italy -jaguar&aston
If it was sold new in the USA in 1935, it is most likely one of the Richard G. Taylor consignment. Taylor was the promoter who became sole concessionaire for the US simply by registering the name SS in North America, so that nobody else, not even Lyons, could use it here. In which case it was likely sold with a standard body; the factory was not disposed to do him any special favors.
According to Allan Crouch’s book, SS Cars, Ltd. dispatched one 1934 and seven 1935 SS1’s to RG Taylor in New York City. Here’s a copy of a letter dated October 23, 1934 from the Sales Department at the Foleshill factory to a potential US customer in Missouri asking him to contact their US “representative” for further info.
Not sure if you were making a joke, but no the Standard Motor Co. never made any part of the body for SS that I ever heard of, they just supplied the engine trans and chassis.
The signature on that letter looks like Alice Fenton, and she probably sent one of these two leaflets to the American customer showing the standard bodies available. http://www.jag-lovers.org/brochures/ssleaflet_makinghistory.html http://www.jag-lovers.org/brochures/ss35_prelim.html
So you can see why we were having difficulty figuring out what was going on with the body on that car.
SS1s [and SS2s ] all had side-valve engines. When the OHV engine was introduce d they were then called SS Jaguars
The were OHV tourers with almost the same body, but these had the SS jaguar engine and running gear and came with the SS Jaguar badge [ and grille]
The 2-1/2 Litre OHV was introduced in Sept '35 for the '36 model year. The 1-1/2 L four continued as a side valve until it became an OHV for the '38 model year.
The OHV engine { Jaguar] was introduced for 1936 model year at the Motor Show in 1935. AS was the way with new models. Te sidevalve engine was still produced for 4 cylinder cars for several years and for SS1 tourers, airlines and saloons for 1936 which ran in parallel with te OHV cars for a short while[[ to use up stock probably]
