The Swallow Sidecar Company’s marketing literature declared that the company’s slinky Jaguar 100 Roadster was ‘designed primarily for competition work .

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(but) equally suitable for ordinary road use, for despite the virility of its performance, it is sufficiently tractable for use as a fast touring car without modification’.

Enthusiasts quickly recognised that this machine was built to devour the road, and the SS Jaguar 100 was a regular participant in hill climbs, rallies and road races, running at all the premier meetings, such as Donington Park, Brooklands, Shelsley Walsh and in the RAC Rally.

This fine 2½-Litre Roadster departed the factory on 1 July 1937, and it was delivered through Henly’s, of London, to a Mr Head.

In 1955, like many other SS 100s, it was exported to the U.S., and it would spend the next 55 years in California, owned firstly by Don Schoenert, then Bud Fisher and most prominently by Elliot A.

Weiner, who kept the car for four decades and regularly displ...