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The Lyon Who Birthed a Jaguar

October 2, 2008 at 11:00 am · Filed under General Category

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Born in 1901 in Blackpool, England Bill Lyons was a motorcycle lover from an early age. By the time he was 18, he owned his own rig ?� an ?�oilbath Sunbeam?� but he coveted Harley Davidson?�s and Borough Superiors (the Cadillac of British cycles).

Lyons had an artistic flair coupled with an eye for design. So when his new neighbor, William Walmsley, started building a stylish sidecar called the Swallow, Lyons bought one for his new Norton. But Lyons was also a visionary. Convinced that the Swallow had real market potential, Lyons persuaded Walmsley to go into business with him. In 1922, as Lyons turned 21, the two men borrowed some money from their parents and established the Swallow Sidecar Company.

As Lyons had envisioned, the Swallow Sidecar became highly sought after and their business thrived. In the mid-20?�s they started building their own cars. At first they designed coaches and fit them to an Austin chassis and engine. They were an immediate hit. So great was the demand that the Blackpool boys had to move into larger quarters in the Midlands area of England.

Still Lyons was not satisfied. He felt his creativity was hampered by having to work with the chassis and engine of another manufacturer. So he designed a chassis and sub-contracted the production to Rubery Owen Works. He then adapted this to the Standard 16 engine and his company added the coachwork. The result was the SS1 followed by the SS-2. While both were highly successful and the company continued to thrive, Lyons was not a man to wallow in good fortune.

He planned a new line of cars, the SS Jaguars. This began with the introduction of the SS Jaguar 100 in 1936. Lyons also wanted an engine that would outperform the Standard 16. When Harry Weslake suggested that an engine would perform better if the valves were overhead rather than on the side, Lyon hired him. The new design modification increased horsepower by 33.3 bhp.

The demand for Lyons?� cars did not let up and, unlike many others, his business survived The Great Depression successfully. The company took a brief holiday from car production from 1939 to 1945 to contribute to the defense effort.

Following World War 2, Lyons continued to design luxury sedans and sports cars all of which found an eager market. Lyons was considered to be ahead of his time in design. But there was more. At a time when most car manufacturers were concentrating on basic units that would transport, Lyons had gone beyond transport and appealed to the psychological aspects of car ownership ?� fun and ego. Other car manufacturers would not start capitalizing on this until later in the century.

This may or may not have been intentional. Lyons may have subconsciously transferred the elements of his early motorcycle attachment to car design. But for whatever reason, the Jag had personality. They have been described as ?�lithe?�, ?�sleek,?� and ?�sexy,?� and were adorned with an emblem of the Pharaoh of the jungle.

Lyons had overseen the design of every model the company produced. Behind his driving force the company prospered. Once Lyons retired, the company went into decline. The new Jaguars were not as attractive as those designed by Lyons. Ownership of the company passed to British Leyland and then to Ford Motor Company. Ford recently sold to Tata of India.

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The Lyon Who Birthed a Jaguar

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