Not too much to say on this post, the picture says it all…
The Leaping Jaguar by Frederick Gordon Crosby is one of the most instantly recognisable motoring symbols in the world. Yet, when SS Cars launched the Jaguar model in 1935, the brochures and other sales literature for the 1935-36 model year did not feature the now famous leaping cat.
Instead, the catalyst for SS Cars adopting a mascot may have been the sight of a Desmo version mounted on the radiator cap of a car in the Foleshill Works, probably some time in late 1937 or early 1938. The stories vary, but either Bill Rankin, SS Cars marketing chief, or William Lyons himself saw the mascot and described it as a “cat shot off a fence”. Rankin was then told to arrange a Jaguar mascot of the marque’s own.
Below is the first version.
Post the war, SS Cars became Jaguar and the first model, which later became known as the MK4 was introduced with the leaping Jaguar mascot fitted to the radiator cap.
It was a factory option so not all MK4’s had the mascot and the radiator was simply a plain flat screw in cap. My car was not released from the factory with the mascot so the search was on for an original that I could retrofit. EBay is full of later model versions but they are not the same. I did locate a company that reproduces a replica which I did consider but was lucky enough to find a restored original mascot that had been converted to a piece of ‘desk art’, coming with a custom built mahogany and brass base plate. The cost was noticeably less than a replica so I bought it complete and then stripped off all the parts that I didnt need.
All it took then was to find a spare radiator cap with the mounting hole and that was it job done as you can see in the picture. I wanted the spare cap so that I had the option to swap the mascot for the plain radiator cap where there was a risk of someone stealing the mascot!