The artists's muse

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With a 3½-litre straight-six fed by twin SU carburetters producing 125bhp, and the look of a typical but especially refined 1930s sports car, the Jaguar SS100 is an easy car to fall in love with. The appeal was certainly obvious for world-renowned motoring artist Michael Turner, who first became smitten with the romance and glory of prewar performance thoroughbreds while viewing the British Empire Trophy as a young boy in 1947.

When Turner spotted an agreeably-priced 1939 SS100 for sale in the 1950s, the young enthusiast, already with two prewar two-seaters behind him, knew that he had to have it. It was no ordinary SS100 either, with a tuned engine and cycle wings hinting at its earlier motorsport career. Having been virtually unused between 1939 and 1945, its first owner had seized the opportunity to start driving in anger once peace resumed, and racked up some impressive results in club competitions.

For a passionate young artist, the car was every bit as good as it had been for the racing driver. Long jaunts from one Grand Prix to another, solicitous liaisons and humdrum trips around town were all taken in their stride by the old Jaguar. Almost 65 years later, Turner still owns the car and is just as smitten with it as the days he first set eyes on it back in 1955. Read the full story in the December issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling. Photographs by Tony Baker.

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