Documented from its first day!
One of just 198 2 ½ litre S.S. 100s!
Two-time contestant in the Mille-Miglia!

Aged just 20, William Lyons and his partner William Walmsley founded the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool on 2 September 1922. What started with the production of motorcycle sidecars quickly developed into a garage for automobiles. A windfall from Walmsley’s father allowed them to set up a firm that truly deserved the name ‘workshop’, situated on Cocker Street.

So the firm changed its name to the Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company, experiencing a stroke of good fortune at the start of 1927. It managed to purchase an Austin 7 chassis from murky sources, and then set about creating its own bodywork. The design became popular, and a dealer from London ordered 500 units. This was the end of the “Sidecar” part of the company’s name, and from then on it became an auto maker. Almost, at least, as it initially built only the bodywork.

Business was good and space soon became cramped, so Lyons and Walmsley moved the firm to the north of Coventry in winter 1928/29. A cooperation with the manufacturers Standard began the same year. Legend has it that this was the birth of the initials “S.S.”, as the owners, unable to agree on a name, compromised by picking the first letters in the company names. But they still needed an official title, which gave rise to S.S. Cars Limited.

The first automobile with proprietary chassis, engine and bodywork was then presented in 1932: the S.S. 1 with side-guided 2 or 2.5-litre inline six, and the S.S. 2 with side-guided four-cylinder engine. Walmsley left the company in 1935, and Lyons preceded to launch his first sports car, called the S.S. 90, which was based on a shortened S.S. 1 chassis and equipped with the same engine. The designation 90 came from Lyon’s assertion that the vehicle would reach a top speed of 90 miles per hour. But he meant it in the conditional, as the media soon found out, deriding his claim as “more show than go”. Nevertheless, they found the design to be delightful.

Lyons then recruited William Heynes and Harry Weslake and tasked them with giving the side valve engine a bit more verve. Lyons asked for 90 hp: what he got was 102, fitted to a newly engineered OHV engine with just under 2.7 litres of displacement. The engine was a sensation when it was presented in a Mayfair hotel in London in September 1935, fitted to a sedan. Besides the numbers, the various models were also given a new name: Jaguar.

The sports car received a new engine the following year as well. It was called the S.S. 100 Jaguar, and kept what it promised. Soon afterwards, the comparatively affordable sports car were doing the rounds of the British racing circuits, where they left their competition trailing in a cloud of dust. The next evolution came in 1937 with the release of a 3 ½-litre model, but the Second World War brought production to an abrupt halt after just 300 units. Lyons again renamed the company after the war, this time Jaguar Cars. It has remained to this day, and the S.S. 100 is seen as the first step in building the legend and as one of the best of all pre-war sports cars!

Appleyard, the Leeds-based agent, whose son Ian became a famous race driver and skier and also went on to marry Lyons’s daughter Patricia, delivered chassis number 18106 to its first owner, S.C. Duckworth. He registered his new sports car on 11 June 1937, receiving the license plate ABT274.

A badge on the dashboard suggests that the car took part in the 1938 Seventh Annual Blackpool Rally. It certainly competed in the Morecambe Rally in 1952. The S.S. 100 held onto its dominant position on the racetracks of the early post-war years, but new and better race cars gradually brought its era to an end.

Before setting off on its journey across the Big Pond in 1961, the 18106 was owned by B.E. Rutland from Isleworth, Middlesex; then, though, Chris Coburn from Portola Valley imported the car to California. Sam Huston from Palo Alto purchased the S.S.100 from him, before selling it on to Van S. Hurd. Sojourning briefly with another owner, the vehicle finally made its way to the man who would keep it for 30 years: Hugo Molnar, a native of Hungary who emigrated to Vienna in 1956 and later on to the United States.

In a written response to a letter from Molnar, Hurd revealed a certain irritation that the car had been sold to someone who was just looking to make a fast buck. Evidently he would have preferred to keep the car, but he did give Molnar a few tips on how to obtain assistance, as the S.S. had started to show its age by then and was needing some attention.

In the following years, Molnar set about restoring his S.S. with immense dedication. Like many of its kind, the engine had already been replaced with a larger, more competitive 3 ½ litre model back in England, but the rest of the car was in a good condition, as shown by photographs.

After completing the restoration, Molnar drove his S.S.100 in numerous vintage races, among them in Laguna Seca, becoming an active member of the Californian S.S. scene. Photos show Molnar at various races, meets and parades. Growing older, Molnar finally sold his S.S. to Christopher Hutchins on the eastern seaboard in Maine in 1998.

The consignor, a Jaguar collector, brought the 18106 from the United States to Austria in 2008. Although repainted again in the meantime, the S.S. 100 had evidently benefited from the decades spent in the dry climate of Palm Springs. The new owner submitted the S.S. to a specialist for maintenance, and from then on drove the vehicle at numerous events. He competed in the Mille Miglia for the first time in 2013. At the start of 2014, he purchased a completely overhauled, original 2 ½ litre S.S. 100 engine from the English S.S. specialist Davenport, restoring the car to its initial specification. He then successfully took part in another Mille Miglia in 2016.

Today, the S.S. 100s have a special place in automobile history, and it is rare to find such a comprehensively documented specimen. This one will turn 80 today, and immediately captivates devoted enthusiasts. It is beautiful, fast and the embodiment of a seemingly endless history. A legend in its own lifetime.

VIN: 18106 Milage: 25,118 mls (read) Displacement: 2,663 ccm/R6 Gearbox: 4-speed Colour: grey/red (leather) Power: 102 hp Papers: Austrian individual approval