SS100 at Gullwing in NY - any thoughts?

Hi. 3 1/2 liter SS100 # 39064 is for sale at Gullwing in NY. I’ve recently retired and looking for a project, plus an SS100 would fit well with our XK120 and Etype. The pictures make it look like this car would require much time and effort, plus finding an engine. Has anybody on the forum seen or heard anything about this car? Thanks. Dave

The engine says JAGUAR on the right side, so it is post-war, not original to the car.

You can decide if that is important to you.

That seems to be a very high price for a car that doesn’t have an SS engine.

Peter

What’s the going price for a rebuildable “M” series SS engine block?

The ex Dave Garroway SS100 is in the Gooding auction in Scottsdale. XK120 engine and instruments, alligator seats and dash. That would be a fun project too.

It certainly needs a bit of work and has some odd bits on it . BUt then a mint 3 1/2 litre brought a bit over $1 million so there 's a bit of money to do work on it .

Although we don’t know what else needs doing I didn’t see a pic of the LHS of the engine bay, where most of the stuff is.
SS 3 1/2 litre blocks are expensive , I have heard of some mouth watering prices being asked and paid . And then start rebuilding . And SS100 gear boxes and CW&ps are not easy to find.
The Dave Garroway car is a bit of a shocker., reminiscent of what a Middle eastern sheik might do if he had one

As a lover of SSs I would put it that and E Type and an XK 120 would be a good supplement to an SS100 : >)
The thing I find that seems to get missed by owners of later Jaguars , is that they are not just an earlier version of an XK / E Type etc. The technology is quite different and unfortunately i see a lot of restorations based on " it’s easier to update than understand something older and unfamiliar that works perfectly well.

If I remember correctly Garroway’s SS100 has had an XK engine in it for the past 60+ years.
Bob
889076
Plymouth, Mi.

The Garroway car is really more about the personality of Dave Garroway. I suppose he is not well known outside the US, and even here the generation that remembers his TV shows will eventually be gone. The 100 is mentioned and pictured on his wikipedia page.

I’d hate to be remembered as the person whose taste ran to alligator skin steering wheels and trumpet horns stuck on the side of an SS100, giving the effect that the car may have had a collision with a brass band and still had debris adhering to it .

The XK engine would seem to have mechanical issues. The twin cam engines are noticeably longer than the pushrod and i see that to accomodate it, the firewall has been altered to move the rear of the engine backwards . SS100s aren’t blessed with excess legroom and one wonders what it would be like to drive. Uncomfortable would be my guess.

Looking through some old books ,there were some dreadful things done to SS100 [ and other SSs] But there is no Statute of Limitations on bad taste.

Ask Dave Davenport. http://www.davenportcars.co.uk/

Peter

The Garroway car comes with an SS engine and gearbox although perhaps it’s questionable whether it might not be better to retain the car with its present modifications and history.

Perhaps you should buy both and put the SS engine in the Dutch car.

Peter

The Garroway car should be left exactly as it is. Great long term history and XK motor has been it now for 60 plus years!

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I’ve heard of people putting on cycle wings, supercharger and bobbed tail bodywork. Then there was the guy that cut big holes in his frame rails to make his SS like an SSKL. :laughing:

To be pedantic , The chassis holes mods were exactly what the factory did to #18008. And done for exactly the same reason .
The tail of the car was from #18010 a car which had been raced for many years in Australia.

18008 was supercharged with a Wade blower.

And the car was and is not an SS100 but was built up from a bare SS1 chassis.

These mods were all consistent with what was done either by the factory or period racing SSs. And generally tended to be consistent with the Form follows Function idea.

Alligator skin steering wheel [ and seats . Trumpets stuck on the outside of the body work, P 100s on an SS100 etc don’t contribute anything and are only a tribute to the idea that fame and money can excuse bad taste.

There have been many truly awful things done to good cars over the years .

I don’t remember, but could stand corrected, Terry advocating that Jumbo Goddard’s home made conversion of a D Type to an " XKSS" should have been kept that way . I certainly don’t think so but it would have been confirmation that Australians can do just as shocking efforts as anywhere else…

WE regularly see links on thse lists to some ebay customised Jag offered for sale, most truly appalling , But the comments never seem to advocate their important collectible status.

Shown here for your consideration some other embellished Jaguars
The Jaguar Story by Joseph Wherry also shows some " interesting " improvements ’ to other SS100s.
Are these ’ important cars’ that should be preserved in this form too?
How many years does it take before something moves from vandalism to history?

Should the old Bugattis that were modified and raced with Holden and Ford engines be kept like that ?
Or the V8 SS 100 in Wherry’s book.
I recall an ad in the RR enthusiasts club mag , offering all the Silver ghost mechanicals , engine , gear box brakes etc. The owner had replaced them with US domestic parts for ’ reliabitity’ to attend rallies… I would have loved to be a fly on the wall and see his reception at these rallies.

Yes, I know about Old Number 8, just friendly kidding, as Mr. Kettle said when Mr. Pot called him black, that’s what the laughing emoji meant, hope it was taken in the spirit it was given. :grinning:
Wherry shows an XK engined Mark IV all polished up for a show. I wonder if it won a prize?
I have seen the Fajole XK140 (the purple thing) in person, and the roof mounted mirror is needed because there is no back window at all.
I once saw an XJ6 that had been converted into a smoker barbecue.
We have had a Lumps forum from early in the history of jag-lovers.
Notice I am giving no opinions, just observing.

I actually believe jumbo goddard’s car should have been left as it was as there are any number of standard D type’s, unfortunately we didn’t have the internet when it was converted back into just another D type!
I for example have an XK120 extensively raced and hillclimbed in Australia in the early 1950’s complete with marshall roots blower, front guards cut out to allow more air the front brakes and scoops on the rear guards for air for the rear brakes and guess what I am rebuilding it exactly as it was raced I also have the Bryson XK140 MC coupe that also had the front air ducts enlarged for front brake cooling in fact these modifications on both cars work was carried out by a small firm of coachbuilders - “Martin & King” and once again this car will be restored exactly as it was raced

And the person or persons who converted this SS100 back into a bog stock standard SS100 should be hung, drawn and quartered!

Terry

“Just another D Type ?” " Any number of standard D Types" yep common as muck , they are… I’ll keep that in mind as a look on ebay for a spare one.

Not sure about the who and when of the “SS120”, There were some interesting coachbuilt SSs and some not so good ones.
I’m not sure what this one achieves apart from pretending to be an XK 120.

One hopes a perfectly good SS100 wasn’t dismantled to make it . And if it was done on a specially ordered chassis in the 30s Bill would have a few questions to answer about copying other peoples designs in the 50s.

Unfortunately this is all supposition as we don’t know why it was converted to , or back .

The XK120 DHC built by a coachbuilder in Czechoslovakia before Jaguar actually built a DHC body on the 120 chassis was built on a genuine 3.5 litre SS100 chassis and you can imagine what an SS100 would have looked like in eastern Europe circa 1950 having survived WWII
Well yes we do know who converted it back to a bog stock standard SS100 and then proceeded to let the European coachbuilt body be destroyed. The SS100 with this bodywork would probably fetch more than a standard SS100 most of which don’t have their original bodywork anyway!
terry

I was thinking that if someone buys it and wishes to convert it back to original and get rid of the tack , I’d donate a set of SS instrument faces as a contribution .