In reading the newsletter I see that even though the Jaguars in the club were really not even old back then, the members enjoyed them as much as we do now. I waited 55 years before joining the club until I got my own Mark IV saloon. The president of the club kindly provided me with links to the back issues so I could scour them for technical advice. How I wish I could have been active in the club in years past before the aging membership dwindled. I have had various XK’s for half a century but the SS and immediate post-war Mark IV’s and V’s have been fascinating to me since, at the age of 17, I sat in a Mark IV saloon. That was in 1969 when I went to the fabled “Jaguar Junkyard” that was outside Detroit to get parts for my beloved XK140 DHC. The owner showed me his LHD and RHD Mark IV saloons that he kept in the barn. Wow, I never forgot sitting in those cars. For myself it meant, in the words of Julius Caesar “Alea iacta est” or “the die is cast”. It would be wonderful to see a resurgence of interest in the SS, SS Jaguar and immediate postwar Jaguar Mark IV’s and V’s that the CJA founded the club with. The internet could perhaps do that. I believe the cars still exist for the most part since that first newsletter and possibly even more exist as a result of more dug out of dusty places since then.
Hi Gary, I’m the same age as you but live in the UK. My first interest in these saloons was slightly earlier than yours when they were still being used as everyday transport. They always caught my eye and I thought they were wonderful but as the years moved on and fewer and fewer were to be seen I forgot about them. It wasn’t until 1992 when I came across a copy of Paul Skilleter’s “Jaguar Saloon Cars” in a remainder book shop that I was reminded and decided to seek one out. In late October after dismissing a few that didn’t appeal for reasons of cost or being beyond my skill set to make driveable I eventually came across a basket case that didn’t require major bodywork but required absolutely everything else. It was 400 miles away and it took several weeks of negotiation before I agreed a price with the seller. In mid February I had the kit of parts in my garage and after 600 hours of work got it legally driveable but still requiring much interior work and restoration of every mechanical part in the whole car. See: SS Jaguar (nostalgiatech.co.uk)
Peter
Hello Peter, Thanks for the link to your website that has so many fascinating bits of information. One part that really caught my eye was your section that described “A Comparison Between the SS Engine and the XK”. As you described, the information was largely drawn from William Heynes’ 1953 presentation to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers titled “The Jaguar Engine”. Until now, and specially now being a recent owner of a Mark IV, it had never occurred to me that Mr. Heynes was describing the new twin cam XK engine but was also perhaps comparing it to the preceding Standard based OHV engine.
The new XK engine was a huge improvement and maybe that should make me content because my Mark IV saloon has had the original engine replaced long ago with an XK120 engine! I had purchased a Mark IV 3-1/2 Litre engine a few years ago with the thought that if I could not have the car at least I would have the engine. I know, that is a little eccentric to have the engine with no car to put it in but I have always admired the early cars with their OHV engines. When I got my saloon I was glad I had the Mark IV engine to replace the XK engine but maybe I should rethink the matter. Whatever the case, I will drive the car as-is for a while. It is far from a show car but I am very happy to have it.
Below is a link to some photos I took of the Mark IV saloon before I bought it from the elderly owner. The XK120 engine is shown in a few photos. Being an XK120 engine instead of an American V-8 and the fact that it fits so well, it’s not the worst thing that could have happened to the car :
Hi Gary,
Your MkIV looks very nice and the slightly longer XK engine has been shoehorned in with very little intrusion into the interior. The OHV engine is quite nice but I would be tempted to keep your car as an interesting curiosity because it has be done so well.
Peter
I think your car with its XK engine features in the Wherry book “The Jaguar Story”
The Jaguar Story by Joseph H. WHERRY: VERY GOOD Hardcover | Hippo Books (abebooks.co.uk)
A good reason for keeping as is. 
Peter
p.s. I’ve just spotted that you are well aware of the book. It all started with a book… - Vintage XKs
Dear Peter,
My jaw just dropped… In 1968, when I was 15, “The Jaguar Story” was, without question, the seminal book that started my quest and undying love for Jaguars. Before that book I was, like most teenagers at that time, generally interested in cars but I was not specifically directed to any particular marque.
A trip to the library in 1968 dramatically changed my automotive inclinations. Below, see a link to a page on my self made and somewhat primitive website that shows just how connected I am to this wonderful book authored by Joseph Wherry. At the time in 1968 when I started checking out the book, again and again, it was recently published and was then a new volume at my small public library. I remember the pictures of the XK engined Mark IV saloon. However, I did not connect the dots until you sent the photos here and I, with my jaw dropping, stunningly and immediately recognized what is probably my Mark IV. Wow, I am so grateful you pointed this out. My Mark IV was from San Francisco and was owned by the founders of the Folgers Coffee company. The is one of the first LHD saloons made in 1947 and at that time it must have been a very special car in the United States. The Jaguar lived on the Folger’s palatial estate that is now worth 23 million dollars (I am certain the car feels it’s present home has given it quite the downward turn). I have the title in the Folger’s name and it was donated to Stanford University, a short drive from the estate. The doctor I bought it from got in 1984 when his office was in nearby San Francisco. By the way, he had his nephew and a woman from his clinic drive the car 3,000 miles to Detroit! In light of the fact that this is almost certainly my Mark IV shown in the book, right down to the aftermarket Stelling and Hellings chrome air cleaners, I will not put in my spare Mark IV engine but drive this bit of history as is. Again, many, many thanks for this information. As a side note, I had seen Joseph Wherry’s original file photos and negatives for this book for sale but did not buy them. He took his own photographs for his many books and guess who wishes he had the original photos and negatives of the Mark IV with the XK engine?
The link below is a page on my Jaguar website describing the the book mentioned above and exactly how this very book set the course for my lifetime hobby and now my new retirement business:
Hi Gary,
I think your car is almost certainly the same one as in the book because the way they arranged the throttle linkage and as you say the air cleaners all match and the at the front all MkIVs were fitted with Lucas FP58 fog lamps and they didn’t have overriders except in Australia. It wouldn’t surprise me if the top radiator hose was the exact same one as in the book photo. It was the link in your website to the Wherry book that caused me to add the p.s. to my previous posting. It’s great to hear that you will keep the XK lump in place. It’s a big part in its history and so nice given your early connection with the book.
I’m sure lots of folk in this forum would love to hear your impressions of driving it and I hope you get the opportunity to try a push rod example to make comparisons.
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the observations, they are most appreciated. Notice the full photo on the left side of the book describes the owner as being “Mrs. Ruth Hellman”. Even though it seems that that car shown appears to have chrome wire wheels maybe they are not chrome (mine are painted). I agree that the absence of fog lamps and addition of overriders may point to it being my car. However, look carefully at the darker tone of the exterior of the car compared next to the engine view on the right side that shows the XK engine. The wings “look” like Suede Green within the black and white tonal range. I do know that, having been a professional photographer for 45 years, colors can appear different in varying conditions. Even the contrast grade of photo paper can affect the final look. I do firmly think that the image on the right is my car however.
Here is a real head scratcher. Below find a link for the obituary for Mrs. Ruth Hellman who died an untimely death in 1972. She was married to a board of directors of Stanford University where my car was donated! This is a tricky part: I have a title from 1967 naming the wealthy Folgers as the owner. The book was published in 1967. Did Beverly Folger who owned the car know or was friends with Ruth Hellman? Did the author of “The Jaguar Story” take the images of Ruth Hellman’s car prior to 1967 since some of his self-taken images in the book date even to the Fifties? Based on some of the other images that I think were taken at that California concours, I think that we are looking at photos from the mid-sixties. The Folgers and the Hellmans certainly were in the same social bracket. Its all very interesting!!
Hi Gary,
Yes, car photo might well have been taken at a very different time from the engine photo. The wing in the engine photo certainly looks a possible for Suede Green unlike the car photo. I really don’t think the wheels in the car photo are chromed. Good luck with the history search, The clues so far suggest it might be very interesting. Please keep us posted with your findings
Peter
If you look closely at the car in the book I think you can see that one of the radiator slats on the left is deformed and your own photo appears to show this too.
There is also a little blemish on the glass of the headlamp on the other side of the radiator and I think that too is visible in the book photo.
Peter
I think that you need to be a forensic evidence investigator! It looks like I don’t need to worry that I did not buy the original negatives and print collection used by Joseph Wherry for his books. The images in the book seem to tell more than I thought they would. Now I really have to find my copy of the book. Note: It is not the copy from my local library that I read to death in 1968.
There are plenty of copies available on Abe Books The Jaguar Story by Wherry - AbeBooks
I may have been mistaken about the side view of a MkIV two pages on not being your car. I see your car does have a small mirror attached to the A post. So now I’m suggesting that the other car photo is your car but before it was fitted with the mirror. It also appears to have overriders on the front.
Unfortunately the bonnet hinges on these cars do not permit full opening as in this photo. The chrome part will split at the ends. It needs a prop or something to prevent full opening.
I have straps but mus admit that when it’s windy I’ve been hit on the head more than once.
The inclusion of your photo with the caption about Jaguar having never named the post-war cars Mark IVs does cause me to make a comment I have never mentioned to anyone. Terming the post-war cars as Mark IV’s is to my ears, wrong and I almost wince when I read it. The trouble is, if I call the cars by the proper names no one seems to know what I am talking about! Since there are pre-war 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 Litre models I guess the term "Mark IV’ identifies them solely as post-war cars. Still, ouch… It evolved into such a commonplace name that I also just call them Mark IV’s. If I show the car at a local car show someday and I make a display sign next to it you can bet I will call it by it’s correct name. I can’t be the only person that feels that way but I have never heard anyone voice it. Sorry to rumble a bit but we are amongst friends, right?
Yes, yours is a Jaguar 3½ litre saloon. Very few people get mine right. It’s an SS Jaguar 2½ litre saloon. So the make is SS and the model name is Jaguar but most people get these terms swapped. I suppose it’s understandable.
Gary, that’s fascinating that your car is in Wherry’s book. That book and the Jaguar book by Lord Montague of Beaulieu were the first two Jaguar books I bought after I bought my Mark V in 1969, when they were just second hand drivers. I drove mine for several years as my only car and daily driver, struggling with obscure manuals by Van Dienst and Chilton and finding parts, before discovering CJA, Hemmings Motor News, Moss Motors, EJAG magazine, and XKs Unlimited.
Amazing to think that an SS100 could have been got for just a few thousand dollars back in 1961. I remember once seeing a D-Type advertised for $10,000 in Road and Track.
I was a member of CJA from 1976 to whenever they stopped. For years it was really the only source of information about Mark Vs, though it was not really practical for me to ever attend a meeting. A long distance member.
Then we got the internet, and with antique car chat groups, things began to improve.
Now we have this wonderful forum, and with all the friends I have made here, I think we are so much better off, and the hobby is better off. Think how obscure information that before took months or years to find, now can be at our fingertips in hours, or even minutes with the wonderful invention called the web site.
My Jan '38 SS is one of the first batch of all-steel-body cars and has some peculiar features, like a crude rear chassis member not even on later '38s, and there were some missing parts, like the boot lid hinges, things that were a mystery to me, and it was through friends like Peter and Ed and a couple of other Peters and others on this forum that we were able to figure them out.
So it seems like this forum is our new club, and though I may not ever meet many of you in person, still I feel I have gotten to know you just the same.
Gary, another clue is the glass bowl fuel filter on yours and the one in Wherry’s book. Most cars do not have this.
I believe the bumper overriders were a popular accessory in the US, particularly California. Gable’s and Bogart’s XK120s had them.
People began calling the '45-'48 cars Mark IVs almost as soon as the Mark V hit the market, a natural assumption I suppose. One author even explored the notion that there were Marks I, II and III with the coachbuilt, steel and post-war models. But the truth is Lyons and his panel beaters made five prototype mockups in the '46-'48 period before he was satisfied with the result, and the last one was known in internal company memos as Mark V, so that is how it got it’s name. (ref XK120 In Detail - Clausager)
When my SS came to me the old Iowa title said the make was Jaguar and the model was SS. I tried to get the Illinois licensing authority to change it so the make would say SS and the model Jaguar but they wouldn’t go for it because SS wasn’t in their database as a make name.
If you look at the page 66 photo in the Joseph Wherry book, the caption says “Mrs Ruth Hellman’s elegant 1948 Jaguar 3 1/2-litre saloon is a frequent concours entry (Author’s photo)”. The book was published in USA in 1967 (I still have book in brand new condition, purchased in 1968 in Melbourne, for the princely sum of (AUD) $6.15, but got to say rarely looked at until this thread)
Gary S has the original receipt from the vendor he purchased car from - from when they purchased it in 1984 from a Ruth Halperin…
Don’t know how many Ruth’s owned Mark IV Jaguars with XK engines fitted in USA in 1960s/80s but surely adds to the likelihood these are one and the same car. This Mark IV is actually a Dec 1947 built LHD saloon, so one of the very earliest Jaguars sold new in USA, first made LHD in Sept 1947.
Thank you everyone for helping identify the similarities in my saloon and the three images of the saloon in the Joseph Wherry book. It really is the same car I believe. Especially when Rob R. mentioned the add-on glass bowl petrol filter and Peter S. mentioned the many like features between the two. I am very grateful that there are so many keen eyes that have observed these things. Like they say it sometimes does “take a village” to accomplish something.
I have contacted the Donations and Gifts Department at Stanford University and hopefully they will divulge the name of the donor of my car . When I find out more I will update all of my friends here at the best “online Jaguar car club” around. On a personal level, I have had some rather serious ill health for several months and I must say that this is very good medicine for me! So, once again a large thank you.
Notice: You may be bored to tears (hopefully not):
In the book The Jaguar Story, my saloon, as cleverly noticed by our forum readers, appears in photos twice. The attribution quoted under one of the images names Ruth Hellman as the owner. I have below a copy dated 1972 from the San Francisco Chronicle of the obituary of Ruth Hellman. Ruth at the time of her fatal accident was 59 and that puts her age at around the late thirties when Joseph Wherry took photos of her saloon at a local California concours. She certainly ran in high social circles and her son was a billionaire who in an interview recalled the Jaguar.
Ok, we now know she passed away in 1972. I also have a California title naming Beverly Folger, the wife of the owner of Folger Coffee, as the owner in 1967. the address of their palatial estate is also on the title. It looks like Beverly Folger owned the car around the time that Joseph Wherry took the photos for his book. She also had connections to the San Francisco area and lived close to Stanford University. The question is: who owned it first? Both woman knew each other; of that I am pretty sure.
I have contacted the president of the Classic Jaguar Association who is the second generation president and lives in that area. Hopefully when he has time he can find some ownership lineage.
Hopefully, I can unravel the full ownership of the saloon as time goes by.
NEWS FLASH!:
Remember the photo of the engine bay of the saloon that appeared in The Jaguar Story? It was what gave clues to the fellow forum members about the identity of my saloon. I looked carefully at the image in the book and agreed with them but I wished I could see a clearer image of the engine bay to really “nail” it. Recently, Rick Uzes shared with us on the forum that he had purchased on eBay some of the original negatives that Joseph Wherry used to make The Jaguar Story. I contacted him and he has a sharp and clear 8" X 10" print that may have even been used by the printer for the publication of the book! Happy days… he is sending it to me graciously for the cost of postage and I can already see from the emailed scan of the image important details that are further revealing the car’s identity.
Thanks for reading, Gary
P.S. as the history is revealed I will, unless I get flagged by this site’s administrator for breaking Rule #312 “Being Too Tedious”, provide more exciting updates to this cliffhanger. Sort of like waiting for the next episode of "Flash Gordon". (and just how old did you say you were Gary?)
Hi Gary,
That’s great research and very far from being “tedious” or boring. I hope you will be able to share the high definition engine view with us.
Keep up the good work,
Peter