Jowett Javelin PE

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The Jowett brothers began making cars at their Bradford factory as early as 1906 and quickly earned a reputation for making tough, well-engineered cars with outstanding economy and excellent pulling power – ideal for charging around the Yorkshire Dales!

But the car that really put them on the map was the Javelin, a compact family saloon that was so far ahead of its UK-produced rivals that it had more in common with the best that Europe had to offer. Designed by Gerald Palmer and launched in 1947, it was intended to be a major leap forward following the relatively staid designs of pre-war Jowetts.

It was powered by a superb 1.5-litre flat-four engine featuring an aluminium block and wet cylinder liners, developing 50bhp (and 52.5bhp in the case of the PE) giving the car a maximum speed of 77mph and a 0-50mph time of 13.4 seconds. A four-speed gearbox with column change was used, feeding the power to the rear wheels and giving the Javelin a performance that wouldn't feel out of place in a car 40 years' its junior.

To quote Georgano: "With its independent torsion-bar suspension front and rear, rigid unitary body-chassis construction, good aerodynamic shape, light weight and high gearing, its fine handling, 80mph maximum speed and combination of excellent acceleration and high cruising speed, it was more reminiscent of the pre-war Lancia Aprilia, the Fiat 1100 or the BMW."

The Javelin went through five variants labelled PA to PE, each having a standard and ‘DeLuxe’ option. Fast and economical, it achieved considerable competition success, coming first in class at the 1949 Monte Carlo Rally, winning the 2-litre touring car class at the Spa 24-hour race that same year, and winning the 1953 International Tulip Rally outright.

Production ended in 1953 when over 25,000 had been sold. The decision to make the gearboxes in house proved to be a costly mistake for Jowett. Problems in the gearbox manufacturing process resulted in incomplete cars stacking up in the assembly line, seriously affecting production. Had the Javelin been made by a bigger company like Ford, it would probably have sold ten times that number.

Like many of the vehicles in this collection, RLG 831 became registered to Stondon in 1997, coming from the last owner up in Yorkshire. The four owners prior to this were all based in Kent according to the original buff logbook. Some rather smart looking bills from the 1970s show a decent amount of work being done to the vehicle including refitting of most of the interior and a number of jobs done to preserve and improve the chrome work. At this time, the mileage was likely to be under 10,000 according to one of the MOTs. The other three record the mileage as almost 80,000 when it passed over to the Stondon Collection.