Being a talented stylist, Lyons himself penned the car, which is now generally considered to be one of the best-looking pre-war sports cars. In mechanical aspect, SS100 did not preview any technical innovation that characterised the post-war Jaguar models. However, no one could deny its fine performance, handling, styling, build quality and competitive price.

That was just the beginning of the success story. After the war, more great sports cars came out from the Coventry factory ...

During its years, XK120 and its successors, XK140 and XK150, faced little competition. Only the equally-successful Porsche 356 could prevent it from dominating the world of affordable sports cars. The Jaguar, followed the British tradition (and further defined this tradition), was more powerful and elegant than its German rival, while the Porsche had better handling and stronger brakes (sadly, Jaguar's drum brakes were not up to its job). Both cars had a glorious life and remarkable sales record.

The Mk II was heavily based on the Mk I, but improved over its predecessor in handling and styling. It was a very beautiful car finished with many Jaguar's unique and elegant details, whose design became the best representative of classic Jaguar saloons. Apart from comfortable cabin and classy interior decoration, it also got an excellent powertrain - the XK twin-cam inline-6, displacing 2.4 litres, 3.4 litres or 3.8 litres. The latter output an impressive 220 hp, thus enabled a top speed of 125 mph and took 8.5 sec for 0-60. It was the fastest mass produced sedan then. Furthermore, it had good handling and all-disc brakes to match. No wonder the MkII dominated touring car racing scene for more than 3 years, including taking the first European Touring Car Championship in 1963.

So, next time if someone ask you who build the best classic sports sedans, don't just say BMW. The British did that even earlier than the German.

When it was introduced in 1961, with a powerful 3.8-litre straight-six which evolved from XK120, it was already one of the fastest cars in the world. British magazine Autocar clocked 150 mph in a pre-production car, that was probably a record in 1961. However, many insiders suspected that was an exceptional sample, 145 mph was more likely for a normal production E-type.

Like XK120, E-type (called XKE in America) was generally praised of powerful, fast, stylish, elegant and reliable. The chassis was made of the latest technology available in road cars - central monocoque with front and rear subframes structure, just like the subsequent Ford GT40 and Lamborghini Miura. In addition, all-independent suspensions were fitted, thus made it one of the earliest mainstream sports cars equipping that. As a result, handling and roadholding was superb.

During its 15 years of life span, E-type evolved several times. The original Series I came with different bodies - coupe and convertible, and different engines - first with 3.8 litres then enlarged to 4.2 litres. Series II was launched in 1968, which had minor modifications including US-approved bumpers and headlamps. Series III made the most changes. Apart from larger air intake, it was installed with the company's most advanced V12 engine. This engine displaced at 5.3 litres and was capable of 272 hp and 304 lbft. Unlike those Italian V12s, Jaguar's motor emphasised on smoothness and flexibility rather than top end power. It turned out to be one of the best engines ever made, and received appreciation from all over the world during the next 25 years. It made the car a lot heavier, thus real performance gain was not so impressive. However, it transformed the car from a wild leopard into a obedient big cat.

Both Series I and Series III were excellent cars. They had different characters, different souls, and until now it is still hard to determine which one was better.

Since the Birmingham show, Jaguar received so many appreciation and enquiries for the car, so it decided to put XJ220 into production. However, show car is one thing, production car is another. The all-new V12 was regarded as too costly to be developed, moreover, its excessive length and weight would not be ideal for a modern supercar. The 4WD was also aborted since Jaguar had no experience about that at all. Instead of realising the prototype, Jaguar switched to a faster, cheaper and more secure way - employed its motor racing partner TWR to develop and build the car based on their XJR-11 Group C racer. Development was relatively simple, the race car chassis was adapted for road use, fitted with the same 3.5-litre twin-turbo 24-valve V6 (which was derived from Austin Metro 6R4 Group B rally car by TWR) and detuned to 542 hp and 475 lbft, easily became the most powerful car in the world, and even outpowered the proposed 500 hp of the prototype. The body was a lot shorter than the prototype as well, although still longer than virtually all other supercars.  That resulted in less weight and better control. Without the V12, kerb weight was easily kept at 1456 kg, lighter than Lamborghini but heavier than Ferrari F40. Despite of the shortening of body, the original styling was unaltered.

Road tests found XJ220 was the fastest car of the time being. Jaguar's own test recorded 217 mph at Italy's Nardo test track, where McLaren F1 broke that record a year later. For acceleration, XJ220 was also the quickest then - Autocar clocked just 3.6 sec for 0-60 mph, which was as good as the quickest Porsche 959 Sport ever recorded. Without 4WD, that was particularly impressive. Moreover, mid to high speed acceleration saw the XJ220 was a level stronger than even a Ferrari F40. The Jaguar raised the supercar game to another league, suddenly making the 959 and F40 seemed dated.

Handling is also excellent, without surprise, thanks to the race-bred chassis. However, it was by no means a classy supercar, mostly because of cheap material used everywhere - the interior materials and finish were cheap (remember, it was built by TWR instead of Jaguar), the rear lights came from Ford Escort ... Besides, visibility from inside was very bad.

Despite of the overwhelming reaction in motor show, when it went into production, the market and worldwide economy deteriorated a lot. Customers found they had many alternatives - Bugatti EB110, Cizeta V16T, McLaren F1, Dauer 962 LM, Lister Storm etc., while the Jaguar turned out to be less well-built than expected, especially compared with Bugatti. There were also some hardcore Jaguar lovers cancelled the order and got refund because the production XJ220 did not get a V12. As a result, Jaguar found it difficult to sell the production run of 350 cars, especially the price was set at a sky-high 475,000 pounds, which was four times of a Lamboghini Diablo and twice the price of Bugatti EB110. The first car was delivered in July 1992 but as late as 1996 I still heard some stocks remained unsold.