William Lyons

Lyons was responsible for the beautiful styling of his Jaguars from SS through MkII to XJ - all classics. Another achievement was to keep prices low without sacrificing quality - Lyons Jaguars were always superb value. An autocratic boss, he started Swallow Sidecars in the mid - 1920s, at first building side cars, then fitting more luxurious bodywork to Austin Sevens. The first SS Jaguars, brilliantly styled saloons and a beautiful SS100 sports car appeared in the mid - 1930s, all time styling greats from Lyons fertile mind. Lyons was not a draftsman but had a gift for design and utilised full sized mock-ups of models to perfect his designs. After the second world war (with the distatsteful conotations of the SS) his company became Jaguar Cars.