Jaguar is a brand of Jaguar Land Rover,
a British multinational car manufacturer headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England, owned by the Indian company Tata Motors
since 2008. Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars
before developing passenger cars. The name was changed to "Jaguar"
after World War II to avoid the unfavourable connotations of the SS initials.
A merger with the British Motor Corporation followed in 1966
, the resulting enlarged company now being renamed as British Motor Holdings (BMH), which in 1968 merged with Leyland Motor Corporation and became British Leyland, itself to be nationalized in 1975.
Jaguar cars today are designed in Jaguar Land Rover's engineering centres at the Whitley plant in Coventry and at their Gaydon site in Warwickshire, and are manufactured in Jaguar's Castle Bromwich assembly plant in Birmingham with some manufacturing expected to take place in the Solihull plant.
The Jaguar company started production with the pre-war 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5-litre models, which used engines designed by the Standard Motor Company.
The 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine was still supplied by Standard but
the two larger six-cylinder ones were made in house. These cars have
become known unofficially as Mark IVs
Founder:
Sir William Lyons and William Walmsley.
