The Jowett Car Company of Bradford, Yorkshire, England manufactured cars from 1905 until its close in 1954. At the end of World War 2 the company hired a draftsman from the MG Car Company to design a new four door family car. His name was Gerald Palmer and the car was called JAVELIN. Manufacture of the Javelin commenced in 1948 and continued until 1953. About 22,800 were made and 433 were exported to Canada. A sports car version called JUPITER was also made.
The company was founded by the brothers Benjamin and William Jowett who started in the cycle business and started making V-twin engines for driving machinery and some found their way into local cars as replacements for other makes. In 1904 they became the Jowett Motor Manufacturing Company based in Back Buckingham Street, Bradford. They designed their first car in 1906 but as the factory was fully occupied making Scott motor cycles it did not go into production until 1910. This car used an 816 cc flat twin water cooled engine and three speed gearbox with tiller steering. The body was a lightweight two-seater.
After the war the company moved to Springfield Works, Bradford Road, Idle, outside Bradford and they changed the company name to Jowett Cars Ltd. Car making started at the new factory in 1920. The first car was the Seven using an enlarged version of the pre war engine first to 831 cc and then to 907 cc in 1921. The engine developed its maximum torque at low revs and was soon famed for its pulling power, reliability and economy.
1934 saw the launch of the Kestrel with four speed gearbox and in 1935 there was the oddly named Weasel sports tourer. The first four cylinder engined car arrived in 1936 with the 1166 cc twin carburettor Ten which continued until the outbreak of war alongside the traditional twin cylinder models which grew to 946 cc in 1937. In 1935 the company went public and in 1936 Benjamin Jowett retired. Brother William carried on until 1940.
Production of cars stopped in 1940 but engine production continued alongside aircraft components and other military hardware.
When production restarted after World War 2 the twin cylinder engine was dropped from the new range of cars, but continued in 1005 cc form to the end of production in the commercials, now consisting of a light lorry, the Bradford van and two version of an estate car called the Utility.
The new cars were a complete change from what had gone before with the streamlined Javelin designed by a team led by Gerald Palmer. This had such advanced features as a flat four engine, independent front suspension with torsion bars front and rear and unitary body construction.
The Jowett Jupiter engine is a good example of British engineering eccentricity. It was Gerry Palmer's (he of the Jowett Javelin design, and later the MG Magnette, Wolseley 4/44 and variants) first and last engine design. It is a horizontally opposed four cylinder unit of bore 72.5mm x stroke 90mm swept volume 1486cc. (90.6cu-in). Compression ration 7.6:1 or 8:1 dependent upon destination country's petrol.
The car was good for 80 mph and had excellent handling. In 1950 the Javelin was joined by the Jupiter sports with a chassis designed by Eberan von Eberhorst who had worked for Auto-Union. The cars were designed for production levels never before attempted by Jowett and additional production space was acquired at Oak Mills and body production out sourced to Briggs Motor Bodies who built a special plant at Doncaster. The new mechanicals had teething troubles but bodies were still being mass produced to the original schedule leading to them being stockpiled. This over optimism was the companie’s downfall and even after the engine and gearbox problems were solved the Idle plant was never able to build, or the distribution network to sell, the anticipated production volumes and this led to the inevitable financial downfall with production being suspended, never to restart, in 1954. |
