This Car Is Related To The One Above because...

We might struggle to move on from that...


...but I found a way. Not many car manufacturers have changed their name, while remaining the same firm. Plenty have been bought over, amalgamated, merged - Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Peugeot-Talbot... but, one that did, was the company formerly known as S.S. Cars.
Contrary to common belief, S.S. did not stand for Swallow Sidecars, but, as co-founder William Lyons confirmed late, it was Standard Swallow that gave it's initials to the coachbuilding venture.
Swallow Sidecars was a trading name used by Lyons and the other co-founder Walmsley to build sidecars, from 1922 on. In 1927 they started coachbuilding bodies to put on to Austin and Wolseley chassis. They also used Fiat and Standard. In 1929 Standard collaborated with Swallow coachbuilding to make the "First SS".


They built the SS 1, SS 2, and SS 90 through the 30's. Under criticism for being slow, they developed a 102bhp OHV engine based on the standard Standard side-valve, and released the SS Jaguar 2 1/2 Litre. This was the name Jaguar's first use, and it was as a model name on the fast saloon which was their first all steel body, not a coachbuilt wood frame car.
The famous SS Jaguar 100 followed. That was the first time Jaguar was used as a makers' name.

And to quote:
On 23 March 1945 the 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."

So here's one of those 1938-1939 SS Jaguar cars, where the name first appeared before it changed to the one we all know today.

The car above (Panther Solo) is related to this..



The Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth. The later Panther Solo's (there was only a total production run of around 25 of both phases of Solo's) used a YB cosworth engine, as found in the Sierra Sapphire Cosworth at the time (1989-1990). The Panthers were also 4x4 and used parts from Sierra XR4x4's.

You see those side-repeater indicator lamps on the wing of the Cossie? They also appeared on the front of this...



1988 Le Mans Jaguar XJR-9

This relates to your thread "Jaguar raced at Le Mans in the same year as the Astra GTE was launched... ie 1988"

1988 was a big year in the automotive world;
In October 1988 introduced "Wartburg" it's first 1.3 four-stroke, four-cylinder engine as also used in the second generation Volkswagen Polo, instead of the original 1-litre, two-stroke, three-cylinder unit found in the 353.

1988....a big year hey

That original 1 litre two stroke 3 cylinder that the VW engine replaced was used as a basis for the powerplant in the Melkus RS 1000:

That makes sense as it used the same 1 litre two stroke as the Wartburg & RS1000. It also followed the Wartburg in using the VW-licensed 1.3, and in the 80's they began installing the Ford Endura-D 1.8 Diesel also found in the Mondeo, among many others:

6R4 used lucas micos fuel injection, which was also used on the prototype group S vauxhall astra 4x4, with a supercharged manta400 2.4 16v engine

...Bringing us naturally to the first composite monocoque...

Ah, Zagato...among the many polarizing styles they were responsible for, their principles of lightweight and unconventional styling were consistent, even when applied to less extreme original concepts...not that the Bristol 406 could be described as "normal" to begin with...