So What is a Sports Car? Answer Below

Filed in archive British Cars , Design , Rare Europeans on April 10, 2009

The 1938 Jaguar SS100 is, to my mind, the epitome of what a sports car should be. Never mind the lack of an envelope body and modern conveniences, one look at the SS100 and you know this is a car meant to be driven just for the sheer joy of driving. It is also the car that made Jaguar, and founder Sir William Lyons, household names in even the most dour of households. I came upon this particular car through the ClassicDriver site, which was featuring a new UK enterprise, Historic Classics, an outgrowth of specialist retailer "Eagle E-Types ." Proprietor Henry Pearman plans to limit the offerings to 25 cars... but oh, what cars they are! Feast your eyes on the Historic Classics Web site and you'll begging your wealthy grandmother for a share of her will in advance.

Of the SS100 Pearman tells a fascinating tale: "That Jaguar has been in 72 different magazine features, over the years; it's the ex-Dave Garroway car. He was one of the country's main TV celebrities of the early 1950s; the original host of the Today show. He put a great big supercharger on the SS engine and blew it up (of course), so he persuaded Jaguar to let him buy a brand-new XK120 engine, which they'd never normally release. Garroway fitted that engine in 1951 and he campaigned and kept the car for over 30 years." Jay Leno never hosted the Today show but he became the star of the Tonight show and is now a renowned car collector. Hmmm... there must be something in that hosting business.