Jaguar Cars
Jaguar (UK: /ˈdʒæɡjuər/, US: /ˈdʒæɡwɑːr/) is the sports car and luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover,[1][2] a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars until its operations were fully merged with those of Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover on 1 January 2013.
Product type
Cars
Jaguar Land Rover (since 2013)[1]
Jaguar Land Rover
United Kingdom
September 1935
Worldwide
Jaguar Cars Limited
"The Art of Performance"
SS Cars
(1933–1945)
- Private (1933–1966 and 1984-1989)
- Subsidiary (1966–1984 and 1989-2012)
26 October 1933
Car manufacturing merged with Land Rover in 2013 as Jaguar Land Rover
- British Motor Holdings
(1966–1968) - British Leyland
(1968–1984) - Jaguar plc
(1984–1990) - Ford
(1990–2008) - Tata Motors
(2008–2012)
Jaguar's business was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars before developing bodies for passenger cars. Under the ownership of SS Cars, the business extended to complete cars made in association with Standard Motor Company, many bearing Jaguar as a model name. The company's name was changed from SS Cars to Jaguar Cars in 1945. A merger with the British Motor Corporation followed in 1966,[3] the resulting enlarged company now being renamed as British Motor Holdings (BMH), which in 1968 merged with Leyland Motor Corporation and became British Leyland, itself to be nationalised in 1975.
Jaguar was spun off from British Leyland and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984 until it was acquired by Ford in 1990.[4] Since the late 1970s, Jaguar manufactured cars for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,[5][6][7] the most recent prime ministerial car delivery being an XJ (X351) in May 2010.[8][9][10] The company also held royal warrants from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.[11]
Ford owned Jaguar Cars, also buying Land Rover in 2000, until 2008 when it sold both to Tata Motors. Tata created Jaguar Land Rover as a subsidiary holding company. At operating company level, Jaguar Cars was merged in 2013 with Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover as the single design, manufacture, sales company, and brand owner for both Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.
Since the Ford ownership era, Jaguar and Land Rover have used joint design facilities in engineering centres at Whitley in Coventry and Gaydon in Warwickshire and Jaguar cars have been assembled in plants at Castle Bromwich and Solihull. On 15 February 2021, Jaguar Land Rover announced that all cars made under the Jaguar brand will be fully electric by 2025.[12]
History
Founding
The Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in 1922 by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley. In 1934, Walmsley elected to sell-out and in order to buy the Swallow business (but not the company which was liquidated) Lyons formed SS Cars, finding new capital by issuing shares to the public.
Jaguar first appeared in September 1935 as a model name on an SS 2½-litre sports saloon.[13][14] A matching open two seater sports model with a 3½-litre engine was named SS Jaguar 100.
On 23 March 1945, the S. S. Cars shareholders in general meeting agreed to change the company's name to Jaguar Cars Limited. Said chairman William Lyons "Unlike S. S. the name Jaguar is distinctive and cannot be connected or confused with any similar foreign name."[15]
Though five years of pent-up demand ensured plenty of buyers production was hampered by shortage of materials, particularly steel, issued to manufacturers until the 1950s by a central planning authority under strict government control. Jaguar sold Motor Panels, a pressed steel body manufacturing company bought in the late 1930s, to steel and components manufacturer Rubery Owen,[16] and Jaguar bought from John Black's Standard Motor Company the plant where Standard built Jaguar's six-cylinder engines.[16] From this time Jaguar was entirely dependent for their bodies on external suppliers, in particular then independent Pressed Steel and in 1966 that carried them into BMC, BMH and British Leyland.
Jaguar has designed in-house six generations of engines:
Jaguar has had major success in sports car racing, particularly in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Victories came in 1951 and 1953 with the C-Type, then in 1955, 1956 and 1957 with the D-Type. The manager of the racing team during this period, Lofty England, later became CEO of Jaguar in the early 1970s. Although the prototype XJ13 was built in the mid-1960s it was never raced, and the famous race was then left for many years.
In 1982, a successful relationship with Tom Walkinshaw Racing commenced with the XJ-S competing in the European Touring Car Championship, which it won in 1984.[77] A TWR XJ-S won the 1985 Bathurst 1000. In the mid-1980s TWR started designing and preparing Jaguar V12-engined Group C cars for World Sports Prototype Championship races. The team started winning regularly from 1987, and won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990 with the XJR series sports cars. The Jaguar XJR-14 was the last of the XJRs to win, taking the 1991 World Sportscar Championship.
In 1999, Ford decided that Jaguar would be the corporation's Formula One entry. Ford bought out the Milton Keynes-based Stewart Grand Prix team and rebranded it as Jaguar Racing for the 2000 season. The Jaguar F1 program was not a success however, achieving only two podium finishes in five seasons of competition between 2000 and 2004. At the end of 2004, with costs mounting and Ford's profits dwindling, the F1 team was seen as an unneeded expense and was sold to Red Bull and rebranded Red Bull Racing.[78]
On 15 December 2015, it was announced that Jaguar would return to motorsport for the third season of Formula E.
On 15 June 2018, Jaguar Vector Racing broke the world speed record for an electric battery powered boat. The Jaguar Vector V20E recorded an average speed of 88.61 mph across the two legs of the 1 km course on Coniston Water, England.[79]
Notable sports racers: