Javelin origins

[robert lintott]

I have just been reading " the Automobile"'s 30 year anniversary one off magazine (1982-2012). Nothing specifically Jowett but anyone interested in the origins of the Javelin design should read their Editor's article on the Lincoln-Zephyr (L-Z) . The magazine has added a L-Z to their oily rag fleet but from the pictures it looks pristine .

Ford were , and remained so for decades, a very conservative organisation and the Lincoln was the product of outside designers who could produce innovative cars outside the Ford environment . They used , guess who , Briggs Manufacturing , the largest independent designer and builder of such cars in the US , under their Dutch chief designer John Tjaarda, to design and build the L-Z. The engine ( a V12) and drive train were installed at the Lincoln factory --familiar ? -. Production was from 1935 -42, 133000 cars sold .

Pictures of the L-Z are impressive . Side and rear view is almost pure Jowett Javelin--6 light 4door , sloping back etc . Even the front grill , designed by Ford , is not totally unlike .

Presumably when Jowett made the deal with Briggs in the 1940s there had to be an agreed design, hence the L-Z was the basis ? No doubt Gerald Palmer ,an innovator himself, was at the root of the alliance .

There is even a picture of the interior of one of Tjaarda's prototypes , just like a Javelin but with a rear mounted V8 sitting in the "boot" !

A good read Bob