Sports Cars

The new Jaguar XF was voted by What Car magazine, car of the year 2008 and quite deservedly so. Contract hire and leasing companies are seeing a strong demand for the vehicle. It seems strange that a vehicle so beautiful and technologically advanced should have its beginnings with a motorcycle sidecar manufacturer; during 1922 two keen motorcyclists William Lyons and William Walmsley formed the Swallow Sidecar Company and stared manufacturing aluminium sidecars. Of the two William Lyons was the driving force behind the company.

At the time motorcycle sidecars were very much in demand, this continued until the ordinary man in the street could afford a car, which was when car sales really took off in the 1960’s. If someone could not afford a car, they would usually have a motorcycle, which was ideal for the single man but not so practical when they got married and had children. The answer was a sidecar. This would allow them to go out for the day as a family; the children would sit reasonably well protected in the sidecar and the wife would ride pillion. The Swallow Sidecar gained market share by having modern and very attractive designs.

The company’s next venture was building car bodies for other motor manufacturers; they built the body for the Austin 7, which was very popular. This prompted them to change the company’s name and became The Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company. They also moved premises from Blackpool, to the heart of the British motor industry, Coventry. Their high quality work had started to become recognized and they were in demand to build car bodies for other manufacturers.

The company then produced their own car in 1931, the SS1. The vehicle was long and with a low-slung body and wire wheels. The car was very stylish and looked far more expensive than 310, which is what it cost. It was exhibited at the 1931 London Motor Show and attracted a great deal of interest.

The name of the company changed again, to SS Cars Ltd in 1933 and the SS1 Tourer was introduced. Shortly after William Walmsley left the company. During the mid 1930’s the SS90 was launched; it was low to the ground and very sporty in appearance, the car was very reasonably priced, less than 400. It was followed by the SS100, this time with a 2,663 cc engine and twin carburettors. It was very fast although later an improved version was on show at the 1938 Motor Show with a 3,845 cc engine. This model never really got of the ground because the Second World War followed soon after its launch.

As was the case with German Motor manufacturers the company’s production was switched to the war effort. The German manufacturing plants were prime targets for the allied force’s bombing raids and the Germans naturally tried to take out the UK manufacturing plants, Coventry became one of the most heavily targeted cities.

SS Cars had little choice but to change its name after the war, sales would not have been helped by having a name that was so closely associated with the recently defeated Nazi Germany. Jaguar Cars became the company’s new name in 1948. That year also saw the launch of the outstanding XK 120.

The Earls Court Motor Show in 1948 saw the unveiling of the XK 120; 120 being the top speed of the car. It may not sound very fast today but it was very fast in those days. It’s speed and road holding were unmatched. Also unmatched was its design it was quite staggeringly beautiful, both then and now. It was a drop head sports car that was so desirable because of it’s combination of speed and looks. Demand was strong and it now very much is a collector’s car.

Jaguar enjoyed enormous success in the 50’s; it saw the launch of the Mark V11 it was a large impressive car that enjoyed motor racing success. Britain’s Mike Hawthorn, the country’s first Formula 1 driver raced the car, as did Stirling Moss. The 1956 Monte Carlo Rally was won by a Mark V11. 1954 saw the introduction of the XK 140; it had new features such as rack and pinion steering and a rear seat suitable for small children. It is debatable whether the typical buyer had small children in mind when buying an XK140. Next came the XK150 this model had disc brakes. Jaguar launched the Mark 1, the Mark 11 and the Mark 1X.

The Mark 11 came out in 1959 and proved to be an extremely popular car with successful business people but also became associated with the criminal world; successful criminals tended to favour the Mark 11 Jaguar. It also became a target for car thieves; they were often then used as getaway cars for bank and jewellery robberies. Later the police bought a number of them and modified the engines so they could keep up. A Jaguar Mark 11 was sold at a Florida auction in February 2008 for $75,900 USD.

In 1961 Jaguar launched the Mark X, it was a very large car much more suitable for the American market than Britain. It was long and wide and did just seventeen miles per gallon, which was not to much of a problem in the US where they were used to gas guzzling cars but of course they were paying much less for their fuel. In the UK it was too large and expensive to run for most .The car became know in some circles as the poor man’s Rolls Royce. The revolutionary E Type was launched in the same year. It was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, the motoring press and public couldn’t believe their eyes; it was a most extraordinary looking car, long, low and sleek, with a bonnet that seemed to go on for ever. To describe the car as eye catching would be an understatement; when it was first on the road, it stopped traffic and pedestrians in their tracks. Jaguar must have been very proud of their achievement.

1968 saw the introduction of the XJ6 an extremely popular car; nearly 100,000 were produced between 1968 and 1973. The Series 11 was then produced and the XJ model has continued in one form or another right through to the present day. William Lyons retired from Jaguar in 1972.

The XJS was produced from 1975 until 1996. The design appeared to fall short of what had become expected of Jaguar it nevertheless was very well received by the motoring press. Jaguar appeared to be back on track when they launched the XK8 in 1997. Its design was sleek and elegant and reminded some of the wonderful E Type launched 36 years earlier.

In 1966 Sir William Lyons, who had been knighted for his services to industry, was negotiating with BMC. Both BMC and Leyland had shown a keen interest in buying Jaguar. The fact that there was serious competition to buy Jaguar, very much strengthened William Lyons’ hand in his negotiations with BMC. The sale went through and Lyons got everything he wanted; Jaguar would remain autonomous and Sir William Lyons had a seat on the board of the newly formed BMH.

In 1968 when Jaguar became a division of British Leyland, Sir William continued to fight Jaguar’s corner but the company was in chaos. Jaguar’s workforce were demoralised further in 1972 when Sir William retired. Inevitably build quality suffered. British Leyland Exports became the new name for the company that had previously been Jaguar Cars ltd and morale plunged even further. After British Leyland’s bankruptcy in 1975 the Labour government nationalised the company.

Jaguar was then in the hands of Bob Knight a loyal Jaguar man, who was determined to turn the company around. Jaguar reputation for poor reliability was becoming well known and sales were dropping. Knight was convinced that a lot of the company’s quality problems were as a result of outside suppliers supplying components that were of poor quality and subsequently failing, making Jaguar cars look bad in the eyes of the public.

In 1980 Bob Knights role was taken over by John Egan. Michael Edwards, who was head of what had become BL, gave more independence to Jaguar and allowed Egan to carry on where Bob Knight had left off, in restoring the company to profitability.

Bob Knight first identified the problem of inferior components being supplied to Jaguar; Egan also quickly realized that Jaguar’s reputation was being damaged in part by their suppliers. When he made it conditional that the suppliers would pay for the cost of warranty work when their parts failed, the problem was soon solved. This was a big step forward in restoring Jaguar’s reputation

Morale amongst the workforce improved when in 1982 the company was restored to Jaguar Cars ltd effectively giving it back its identity and in 1984 the Thatcher government privatised the company, it became Jaguar plc. After so much turmoil the company was safe again. Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 in a deal worth $2.5 billion. Over the following years it is estimated that they invested another $10,000 billion between the two companies they had acquired, Land Rover and Jaguar

In 1982 the company was re-named Jaguar Cars ltd and in 1984 was privatised by the Thatcher government, Jaguar Plc was formed. John Egan remained with the company as chief executive. Jaguar’s future was once again secure. In 1989 Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion, it has been estimated by some observers, that since then it put between $1billion and $1.5 billion a year into the company, more conservative estimates are that Ford invested over the years, a further $10 billion into Jaguar and Land Rover, which it had also bought.

Ford got some return on their investment into Land Rover but not from Jaguar. Ford was worried about the future of large cars and in 2001 launched the X Type. It was hoped that it would rival BMW’s and Mercedes’ entry models, it did not. Using Ford Mondeo components in the X Type did not help its reputation, Jaguar was after all a luxury brand. With the benefit of hindsight Ford must have seen the X Type as a big mistake.

Ford had problems of its own and needed to concentrate on their own core business, Jaguar was eventually put up for sale along with Land Rover. Ford had sold most of its stake in Aston Martin in 2007 and in March 2008 both Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata the Indian motor manufacturer for $2.3 billion. It must have been a bitter pill for Ford to swallow, made even more bitter, by having to find a further $600 million to make up the shortfall in the two companies’ pension funds. Furthermore Ford will miss out on the success of the new XF model.

More importantly Jaguar’s future seems to be secure. Jaguar needs to have its identity to succeed and Tata have confirmed that is how they want it to be. Naturally they will want to have some input but they will probably keep that to a minimum acknowledging that Jaguar is very special case and can do very well if left to get on with things.

In 2006 of 30,000 Germans polled, the majority favoured Jaguar over the German produced Mercedes, BMW and Audi; Jaguar is also extremely popular in America. The XF model being hailed as a triumph and with contract hire and leasing companies, that are responsible for so many of the cars on the roads of Britain, placing significant orders for this model, there seems no reason why Jaguar will not be around for another 86 years.

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