Jaguar

[Erich]

As others have said, the company which later became Jaguar, began life building sidecars(Swallow Sidecars). The popularity of the Austin Seven helped to kill(or diminish) the popularity of sidecar combinations and also cycle cars. So Swallow bought Austin Seven chassis and put their own bodies on. Their initials, SS, were used up to WW2, and afterwards, it was deemed a potential hindrance to have those initials. Dixi in Germany also built Austin Sevens, and was subsequently purchased by BMW and became their first four wheel car. In Japan, Nissan used many of the ideas of the Seven to build their first car, but Lord Austin was unable to prove patent infringement. Although Austin produced just short of 300,000 Sevens, I am curious how many other variants were produced based on the Seven. Another 50,000 perhaps?

Erich in Mukilteo