Suffolk SS100 Newsletter October 1998

Summer is almost over and sadly we will soon be putting the clocks back. I have been very active this summer doing an average of two shows every month and I expect the order book to remain busy. I've just had an order confirmed from a gentleman who first saw the Suffolk SS100 six years ago and then sort of forgot about the idea until he was wandering around the Beaulieu Auto Jumble thinking about a winter project. We were there too - so that solved his problem. In June we were once again invited by the Jaguar Drivers Club "E" Type Register to join them at the Prescott Hill Climb. Despite the showery weather we took two SS100's and enjoyed a day of great fun in one of the most evocative motorsport settings in England. Whilst the hill climb proceedings are not officially timed we know that our cars will storm the hill as fast as most "E" Types. We recently delivered a works built SS100 to a customer. Unfortunately he was just dashing off for a business meeting so was unable to to take his first drive in his new car. However he said I should put the new car in the barn and have a look at another "old jag" he had just bought as a part exchange in a property deal. I had visions of a rusting XK or a basket case "E" Type leering out of a dark corner. The barn revealed a simply gorgeous "C" Type Replica by John Gregson. I rarely get involved in other cars but I didn't take any persuading to bring the car back to Suffolk for a little tuning and testing. This car may be available for sale so call me if you would like more information. The is an excellent retrospective article about the original Jaguar SS100 in the August issue of "The Automobile". The writer, Douglas Blain writes over four pages all about the 1937 Replica Reg. No. BOT 862. I make no apology for taking some of his words verbatim and reproducing them here - "The fact that the SS100 appeared slightly outside its true time-frame has probably contributed to its enigmatic reputation. The shape of the SS100 as a whole, its proportions and scale are just perfect to my eye. So are the details. The grille design, the set of the windscreen, the arrogant slope of the 15 gallon slab tank and the cheeky downward and upward (respectively) flicks of those elegang wing tips, front and rear. These are the hallmarks of genius. One can safely say that even the tiniest alteration of the car's appearance would have been a mistake. When it comes to a 60 year old example of such importance and provenance this venerable sports car in it's present mellow and obviously well used condition positively oozes charm." I frequently get requests from potential customers who say they have seen an SS100 for sale and assume it must be one of ours. Alternatively they want to know the difference between our car and the others that have been made. In reality none of them is a visual replica, but if you half close your eyes and throw away the ruler you might be mistaken. There are four pastiches around - none of them in production today.

I am pleased to confirm that the Suffolk SS100 retains all the detail character and fittings of the original cars. All our body dimensions and aesthetic curvature are faithfully accurate. Please do not confuse the Suffolk SS100 with other pastiche SS100's which have bodywork seven inches wider than correct and 15 inch wheels instead of the true 18 inch. Here is some information on other cars. The Steadman TS100 was made at Hayle in Cornwall in the late 1970's. It used standard XJ6 front and rear subframes and was six inches wider than the original. The wheelbase was too long and the car suffered from very low ground clearance. It cost £36000 almost 10 years ago. No longer made. The Panther Westwinds SS100 sold well in both 4.2 and 5.3 form but was equally inaccurate visually. The cars are prone to overheating and no spares are available. The Heritage 100 is a reasonable lookalike but runs on 15 inch wheels and is also too wide. The car apparently handles well but has not been available for many years. The Birchfield was another lookalike, made with a galvanised chassis but a clumsy inaccurate body. About 12 were made before production ceased about 6 years ago. The pedigree of the Suffolk S100 goes back to 1936 when just over 300 of the original Jaguar SS100 cars were made by William Lyons of Jaguar Cars. In the sixties and seventies, classic car prices started to rise dramatically. Terry Rowing of Colchester established a successfull business and enviable reputation restoring over 20 of the original Jaguar SS100 sportscars. These customers wanted their classic restorations to be totally accurate and indistinguishable from the original prewar cars. Old photographs, factory records and archive material were sourced and studied. New tooling was made to create almost every bodywork and chrome part. New wings, doors bonnets, radiator cowls and griles, windscreens, aeroscreens, seat frames, hood frames and lamp bars were all reconstructed and copied. With the values for well restored original cars exceeding £100.000 Terry decided it was time to create a visually perfect replica to combine the best of the old with the best of the new. His right hand man Terry Booty created the body mouldings for the car that became the Suffolk SS100. The lovely original 1938 SS100 still owned by Adrian Newey was used as the mould model. Copies were made of the bodywork fittings so that the replica would be as close to the original as possible. Beneathe the visual exterior a substantial ladderframe chassis was specifically designed to accept all the mechanical components from the Jaguar XJ6. This exercise alone meant hundreds of hours of careful thought and engineering execution.

The first Terry Rowing SS100 was shown publicly in 1991 and created instant acclaim. Jaguar Quarterly magazine were highly impressed and wrote articles about the car. Production of both component form and factory built cars took place at Colchester but by 1995 Terry was finding the demands of his other business meant insufficient time was available to devote to the replicas. At about this time a friend had recently taken delivery of a Terry Rowing SS100 and brought it round to show me. I've been involved emotionally with Jaguars since 1959 and could not believe the quality and accuracy of this replica. So the next day I visited Terry and began a series of negotiations that, 18 months later, led to me taking over the SS100 Replica project. My love of Jaguars goes back to 1958 when I played rugby for my home town. In those days I was too young to drive by my father was a director of a motor group selling Rover, Austin, Daimler, Austin-Healey and Standard-Triumph. Cars were in my blood and so too was rugby. For away matches we would pile into whatever cars other players could provide. One night I came back from Bedford in a black 3.4 Jaguar Mk1 Saloon. The memory of seeing 110mph in the blue lighting of the speedometer will always be cherished. A year later I had been accepted as a management trainee with Botwoods, the Jaguar dealers in Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds. In the five years that followed I did everything to Jaguar from reparing them to selling them. I even crashed one. Then I had my own business and owned an SS Saloon and numerous "E" Types and XJ6's. In the late seventies I raced Lister Jaguars in Historic Racing here and in Europe. The racing stopped in 1990 but my love of cars with the XK engine remained. So to continue what Terry Rowing had started was for me as if the wheel had turned full circle. Today, we have a large number of cars in production, some workshop built, but principally sold in component form for Jaguar and SS lovers to build at home themselves. We have a programme of continuous improvement of the car and its components but the essential mechanical excellence is embodied in the Jaguar donor parts and the dynamics of Terry Rowings chassis. Everything we make is presold so your are unlikely to find a pile of rusty new chassis sitting around our workshops. If you are thinking about starting a Suffolk SS100 project the chassis will be the first importand items and production lead times are currently three months from order. In recent months my team has been strengthened by the arrivel of Peter Barber-Lomax. Peter has had many years experience in rebuilding and race preparing a number of historic competition cars. Peter is actually an Alfa Romeo and Triumph TR fanatic but I'm gradually converting him to the simplicity of the XK engineering experience. I will be putting more information on our website in the months ahead. Nick Johannessen runs an excellent JagWeb from his base in Norway and enquiries come in from all over the world.

The Single Vehicle Approval regulations came into force on July 1st. We had already submitted my seven year old demonstrator for the test back in February. The 120 odd pages looked daunting but proved much less of an ordeal than we had been led to expect. We came home with a hit list of modifications. These have now been done and all new orders are being fulfilled on the basis of the cars being SVA compliant. One of our potentially biggest headaches was the requirement of fitting "E" marked glass lenses to all the lights. It must have been an industry wide problem without an easy solution because at the very last minute the requirements were dropped from the regulations. Each Suffolk SS100 built under the new SVA rules will be contructed using Jaguar XJ6 donor mechanical parts - a list of these parts is available from Suffolk Sportscars. The Jaguar donor parts are fitted into our new chassis and body. After the car is satisfactorily tested the V5 registration documents are issued by DVLA Swansea. The registration will show the cars as being new cars and will therefore not require an M.O.T. for three years. It is not often I have a preowned car for sale but occasionally I get asked to find a new home for a customer car. Values are always strong for well constructed and maintained cars, but that is advantegeous to everyone. The quality and rarity of the cars, combined with the realisation that this is actually an excellent driving machine will maintain used car values well into the future. I am also happy to guarantee a buy-back price after say two or three years if anyone is anxious to protect the downside of an investment in a Suffolk SS100. I currently have an owners car for sale so if your would like details please contact me. Another car may become available in a month or so. I am always prepared to discuss the part exchange of a customer's car, or other items of value, against the purchase of a car. In recent months we have assisted in the sale of a Triumph Tr6, a Porsche 911 - and a sailing boat. A very experienced Jaguar mechanic and friend of mine is about to start building up a complete rolling chassis which can be delivered, if required, with the bare body fitted read for customer fitting out. The package will include the Jaguar donor components and V5 registration documents. The XK 3.4 litre engine has already been completely rebuilt and is mated to a 4 speed with overdrive gearbox and 3.84 differential. The price, excluding body, will be approximately £13000 according to specification supplied. A car needs to involve the driver in the pleasure of driving and being driven. It needs to handle predictably and respond to every control. The Suffolk SS100 will do all these things and cruise all day in comfort at 90mph without tiring the driver. The Suffolk SS100 suffers none of the compromises associated with Jaguar "C" Type and "D" Type replicas. The easy to erect hood, interior space and luggage rack make this a highly practical classic car for long distance touring - which is probably why almost all the owners have a GB plate - and I get postcards from Spain and Italy. Please call to make an appointment to view our workshops and drive our demonstrator. I'm always up and about by 7.30 so an early morning call is a good way to catch me. The final show dates of 1998 are as follows: - Sat/sun October 3/4 Malvern Classic Weekend Sun October 25 Jaguar Spares Day, Stoneleigh Sat/Sun November 7/8 NEC Classic Car Show Sat/Sun November 21/22 Exeter Car Show Yours sincerely Roger Williams

Enquiries can be emailed to us at suffolk@jagweb.com,
but please include a return fax-number for our reply.