SS & Jaguar Cars

Published in Association with Jaguar Heritage. Following on from his book S.S.I and S.S.II Cars (October 2006; Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust; ISBN 978 0954103 92 7), marque expert Allan Crouch details the models that succeeded them: the 11/2 and 21/2 Litre of 1936-37, the SS100 sports car, the 11/2, 21/2 and 31/2 Litre of 1938-48, and the Mark V of 1948-51. Apart from the 11/2 Litres, what was common to these cars was the six-cylinder engine, based on a Standard side-valve unit for which Harry Weslake designed an overhead-valve cylinder head, giving very respectable power outputs. Combined with flowing body styling inspired by William Lyons himself, the result was some strikingly attractive and desirable cars, at extraordinarily keen prices.

About the Author

Allan Crouch studied Sciences at Reading University and then pursued a career as a production engineer in the telecommunications industry in Brazil and the UK. Now retired, he is the Registrar for SS cars for the Jaguar Drivers Club, and has expanded the register to include all the known cars worldwide by incorporating the major overseas registers in the USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and continental Europe.

He is a volunteer archivist for the Jaguar Heritage, computerizing all the factory sales and orders ledgers for pushrod-engined cars from the early S.S.I and S.S.II to the Jaguar Mk V. In 1979 he found and acquired a rundown and partially dismantled 1948 Jaguar 21⁄2-litre drophead coupe, which he set about restoring and which has since won a number of Concours competitions.