Jaguar is a British company based in Coventry and is predominantly concerned with the manufacture of luxury cars. It was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company by Sir William Lyons in 1922 and was originally concerned with the production of motorcycle sidecars.
However, by 1927 Lyons had moved onto the production of passenger cars and in 1931 he launched the SS1, which provided a spring board for the first true Jaguar. The name Jaguar didn t arrive until the 1930s, when a name was needed to reflect the qualities of speed. Power and sleekness, the company were trying to produce. Also the name change was deemed necessary due to the negative connotations of the initials SS in the run up to the Second World War.
Jaguar built up an excellent reputation with the rocketing success of both the sporty XK120 in 1948 and the Mark VII saloon in 1950.
However, Jaguar realised there was a gap in their market in 1955 and created the Jaguar 2.4 as their high volume smaller car.
By 1961 and the arrival of the E-Type, Jaguar became a knockout success. The E-Type was considered an icon of its time and is possibly still the most famous sports car in living history, with around 70,000 E-Types being built between 1961 and 1974, with 60% being shipped to the USA.
In 1968 Jagua
