IN THE BEGINNING

THE WORLD’S BEST motor cars are all created by the single-minded vision of an individual. Think Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche… and Jaguar. William Lyons, born 4 September 1901, was ‘Mr Jaguar’ and he created one of Britain’s best-loved and most successful marques both on the road and the racetrack. The epithet ‘grace, space and pace’ perfectly sums up everything about Jaguar.

Born in Blackpool, Lyons obtained an engineering apprenticeship at Crossley Motors in Manchester, and he was a motorcycle enthusiast at the time. In 1921 he met fellow motorcycle enthusiast William Walmsley, who was converting army surplus motorcycles and sidecars for civilian use. Young Lyons and Walmsley borrowed £500 from their respective fathers and set up the Swallow Sidecars Company.

Granted, an ex-army motorcycle and sidecar is not necessarily the most attractive device but Lyons brought his styling skills into play and soon the company was manufacturing very stylish sidecars that appealed to dashing young men all over the nation. By 1927 the company had expanded into producing low-cost coachbuilt cars such as the Austin 7 Swallow.

In 1928 Lyons moved the company to Coventry and by 1931 he began selling the beautifully designed SS1. In 1935 the first ‘Jaguar’ motor car was manufactured: the 2.5-litre saloon. Stylish and sporty, the 2.5 was the world’s first ‘sporting saloon’, a design William Lyons would continue to pursue along with the more overt sports cars that Jaguar became synonymous with. He’s pictured (centre) here at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory with engineer Bill Heynes, an Austin 7 Swallow and a Jaguar Mk1 saloon.