1935 Standard Swallow Jaguar SS90 Prototype

The SS90 prototype was actually rather old-fashioned for 1935, displaying the long, rakish wing lines of some late-1920s sporting cars at a time when French, Italian and even American cars, such as the Lincoln Zephyr, were using teardrop-shaped wings.

One could almost draw the top view of the SS90 with a T-square and compass: the sides are straight and parallel, with three semicircular elements ending the two front wings and the entire rear. This prototype is actually more graceful than the later production SS90 and SS100 models derived from it, particularly in the way the rear curves around the spare wheel. The Englishness of the design is seen in the way that the body sides keep parallel quite far aft, and then sweep around the tyre. An Italian car of the same period typically tapered inward behind the cockpit, approaching the spare wheel tangentially.

Notice the delicacy of the bright metal strips on the after-portion of the front wing, exactly where the feet of entering and exiting passengers will fall. Each is of different length, the angled termination line at the front pointing to the closely spaced bonnet side louvers. The front of the car is quite different from the rest; it exudes the assurance of am imperial power: upright, rectilinear, massive and confident. Triangulated struts bracing the horizontal headlight mounting bar add a solid geometry to the ensemble, and the increasing fluidity of line as you move backwards recalls the form of a raindrop.

These extracts are taken from Auto Legends: Classics of Style and Design by Michel Zumbrunn, text by Robert Cumberford which was published by Merrell