1935 SS1
History
The Swallow SS-1 is a British sports car produced from 1932-1936.
The Swallow Sidecar Company of Coventry, England began building automobiles in 1927 and introduced the Swallow SS-1 in 1931 at the London Motor Show.
The SS-1 Tourer was launched in 1934. The later 1936 Tourer was designated as a “Jaguar.”
According to Alan Crouch (Jaguar Heritage trust historian) and author of “SS-1 & SS11 Cars”
there were a total of 544 SS-1 Tourers made between 1933 and 1935, of which only 78 are believed to survive.
Because the factory was reported to have exhausted their parts supply, 17 Tourers built at the end of 1935 were modified to accept the 1936 grille and a special front enamel badge made to read ” SS-1” instead of the 1936 badge reading “Jaguar”.
Of these 17 unique cars, only 7 are known to remain and our car is one of the 7 survivors.
Richard Taylor of British Motors of New York, the sole concessionaire for SS cars in the US offered the SS-1 Tourer for sale in 1935 at a price of $2250.
Specification are: 2663cc, 6 cylinder , 20 HP, side-valve, 7 bearing crankshaft, dual carburetor engine with a 4 speed transmission.
After WW2, “SS Cars Ltd” changed their name to “Jaguar Cars Ltd” due to the negative connotations of the SS initials.
Our Car
Our car is a matching number example that was dispatched to New York in January 1936.
In 1959 it was donated by Al “Bud” Lewin to the National Museum of Transportation in St Louis, Mo.
In 2000, after 41 years on display, the museum commenced a restoration that could not be completed through lack of funding. We acquired it in February 2013 and commenced a full restoration, which was completed in July 2015.
Painstaking research has been undertaken in consultation with experts around the world to validate and authenticate originality and concours details.
A few of the many outstanding features of the SS-1 Tourers include the split rear seats, the luxurious rear leather armrest, the ”Sunburst “ interior door panels and the fully chromed wheels which are then painted body color leaving only the outer rim showing the plating.
SS-1 Write-up provided by owners,
Colin Seid & Richard Annis
