Description
Source: Classic Jaguar
The above website has full details and photos on a full restoration of SS100 chassis 49050.
Extract from the above website …
We are thrilled to have this spectacular SS100 in the CJ Workshops awaiting a total restoration. Chassis number 49050 was the last of only twenty one 2.5L SS100s built in 1938. The car retains its original matching number engine, all of its original sheet metal and virtually all of its original ancillary components.
49050 has an interesting history, having been used for promotional purposes by Jaguar alongside the newly launched XK150 model at the 1957 RAC Diamond Jubilee Cavalcade, celebrating 60 years of British motoring. Apparently they (Jaguar) gave the car something of a cosmetic restoration for the event. Once the RAC cavalcade concluded, one of Sir William Lyons’ senior managers suggested to Sir William that 49050 should be the first car in a new Jaguar museum. Sir William, apparently not terribly keen on the idea of a Jaguar museum, told his manager that if the car hadn’t gone by Monday, the manager would be out of work.
Shortly thereafter, the car was sold to a US airman stationed in England, who brought it back with him to the United States, where it has been in the hands of the same owner for more than 55 years. In 1966 the owner took the car apart with the intention of repainting it, but never completed the task.
Photos: original-49050-001 to 167