1935 SS Cars Ltd. SSI Airline Saloon
Provided by Hemmings

Before there were the legendary cats from Coventry, a good number of swift little birds flew the coop of this English automaker.

We would be surprised if someone mentions the name Jaguar and the image of a sleek and sporty roadster like the XK-E, or a stately English saloon like the Mark I and II doesn't instantly spring to mind. However, talk about SS Cars, and few and far between are those who have a clue as to which automobiles you're referring to, even though the cars the company produced are considered to rank among the premier road-going sports cars and coupes of the immediate pre-war era.

Swallow Sidecars, later to be known as SS Cars, was started by one William Walmsley. The firm engaged in retrofitting ex-military motorcycles and manufacturing sidecars for them. In 1922, William Lyons partnered with Walmsley and officially formed the Swallow Sidecar Company. Near the end of the decade, Swallow expanded its product line to include its own coach-built version of the Austin Seven. Released for sale in 1927, the Austin Swallow was a successful venture for the fledgling company.

Following a move of the company's factory, its product line expanded with additional coach-built versions of a number of cars, with William Lyons handling the design work. In the early 1930s, Lyons introduced the company's SS models, based on the six-cylinder Standard Ensign. These cars were widely acclaimed by the English press for their low body lines and curvaceous styling along with the power and handling attributes of the Standard engine and chassis, which were custom-built to Lyons' specifications. By 1934, business was brisk enough that Swallow was able to restructure, with the SS Car Company being formed to head up production of automobiles, while the company's initial venture, the construction of motorcycle sidecars, continued under the Swallow Sidecar name. Still debated is whether the SS in SS Cars stood for Swallow Sidecar, Standard Swallow or Swallow Special. Lyons and Walmsley were soon to part ways. In late 1933, Lyons launched SS Cars Ltd. and, by the end of the following year, bought out his partner. It was also during this point in the company's history, in 1934, that the SS 1 Airline Saloon was introduced. Though its fastback streamlined body styling caused quite a stir, reportedly Lyons was not quite as enamored as the public was with the end product of his sketches and felt that he'd been caught up in following the streamlined trend. Produced from 1932 to 1936, the SS1 line, upon which the Airline Saloon was based, saw a total of 4,200 cars built, with its smaller sibling, the SS 2 accounting for a total of just under 1,800 cars.

The Jaguar name, first applied to an engine series from Armstrong-Siddeley, was used by SS Cars for a 2.7-liter-powered line of cars that debuted to the press as early as late 1933, though these first SS Jaguars were not available to the public until early 1936. By this time, production of the SS1 and SS2 lines was being phased out, and the new SS Jaguar 100 was quickly making a name for itself as the pre-war car with which to campaign in competitive events. From 1936-1940, more than 14,000 SS Jaguar 100s were built.

As time would tell though, the name of the company was a rather ill-fated choice. Following the end of hostilities, the SS name was dropped because of its obvious connotations to a far more sinister and reviled organization. In February 1945, SS Cars Ltd. became Jaguar Cars Ltd., and in the decades that followed, any fear inspired by this car company's name came solely from its reputation on the racetrack.