1938 SS100 Jaguar 3½-Litre Roadster by Leonida & Co. 'The Romanian Car'

Launched for 1936, the SS100 was the first real high-performance model produced by SS Cars Limited and used a new Weslake-developed, overhead-valve engine in a shortened SS1 chassis. The introduction of the OHV unit was considered to justify the adoption of a new name for the series, SS Car’s boss, William Lyons, later recalling '” immediately pounced on Jaguar as it had an exciting sound to me.' ('Jaguar' would be adopted as the marque name in 1943, 'SS' having by then acquired a somewhat tarnished reputation).

Although a fine touring car, the SS 100 was marketed as primarily for competition work. Its first major success came early, if somewhat unexpectedly, when Tommy Wisdom, crewed by his wife, won the arduous International Alpine Trial in 1936, beating Bugatti and bringing the fledgling marque to the attention of the Continental public. This would be the first of many successful rallying forays, including class wins in the RAC events of 1937 and 1938. A total of 191 2½-Litre and 118 of the later 3½-Litre cars had been made by the time SS 100 production was prematurely ended by the outbreak of war.

I wouldn’t think for a moment that Tommy Wisdom would have considered the possibility that a 15-year old Rumanian Prince (Michael) would have been so impressed by his exploits that, when his father, King Carol II, asked him what he would like for his 16th Birthday, an SS100 Jaguar was top of the list. The very first 3½ litre SS100 built duly arrived and all concerned were very impressed, particularly the King who immediately ordered a 3½ litre SS Jaguar Saloon, the fifth example built.

In May 1938, another car, a complete SS100 chassis (#39070) with electrics and instruments but with no bodywork, was shipped to Romania by Anglo Cars and Jaguar historian, the late Andrew Whyte, is recorded as having assumed that this was a ‘spare’ chassis for Prince Michael’s car (a 16-year old in one of Europe’s most powerful cars!!), however, it was actually ordered by King Carol’s mother, the Queen Mother, who had purchased it for her second son Prince Nicholas.

Prince Nicholas was a motorsport enthusiast and had formed a friendship with his mechanic, notable Bugatti racer Jean Calcianu, who agreed to design an attractive aluminium body for the car and asked the firm of coachbuilders, Leonida & Co, whose premises were very close to the Royal Palace, to build the car to his design and they were naturally pleased to receive the Royal Commission. We understand that to this day, #39070 remains in that same configuration and is finished in the same shade of, appropriately, Royal Blue.

In the very late 1930s, the political climate was becoming anti-Monarchy in a number of Eastern European countries and Prince Nicholas, concerned for the safety of his beloved SS100, asked his friend and Air Force flying instructor, Captain Cula, to hide the car for him awaiting better times, which he duly did. However, tragically, he was killed in a flying accident shortly afterwards leaving the whereabouts of the Jaguar unknown to anyone apart from his wife. In, we assume, a distressed state Mrs Cula engaged a solicitor to help sort out her late husband’s affairs. One thing led to another and the widow Cula became romantically involved with her solicitor which was fine until the relationship cooled and the solicitor had not been paid for his services. Eventually it was agreed that he would take the car and its paperwork as full settlement and the Jaguar was spirited away to another secret location.

The next part of the story involves an influential and wealthy Bucharest dealer who had heard of the car and its important history from Calcianu and approached Mrs Cula to see if she would sell him the car only to hear the story of her relationship and debt to her solicitor. The dealer then contacted one Nicholas Mazilu, an engineer and motoring enthusiast to whom he owed a favour, and arranged to meet the solicitor along with Mazilu and a member of the Security Services, the Securitat, ‘mob-handed’ as we would say these days. The intent was to scare the solicitor into selling the car and parting with the papers, so as to recover his debt from the wife. On seeing the car for the first time, the Securitat man recognised it and identified it as having belonged, or possibly still belonging, to the Royal Family, an obvious problem for the solicitor, so a sale price to Mazilu was quickly agreed.

So once again the SS was driven off into the night not to be seen again by the solicitor or Mrs Cula. Having planned to sell it, Mazilu became enchanted with the Jaguar and began to use it on a regular basis, even proposing to his wife in it. He worked as an engineer at Brasov University and apparently whenever his fiancé arrived there, Mazilu and the Jaguar were surrounded by pretty girls, leading to him being given the ultimatum “It’s me or the Jaguar” or whatever that is in Rumanian. It was subsequently sold to Dr Viorel Pop who lived in Hunedoara and that’s where the early history of #39070 appears to stop until it was offered for sale in 2000 by Philip Scott after purchasing it from an anonymous dealer in Hungary who was keen to protect himself from any questions from the Hungarian and Romanian authorities, about how the car came into Hungary and in his possession in the first place. Shortly afterwards, now registered WLD 100, it was sold by Coys at auction and by this time was in need of a major restoration.

Having initially been concerned about the amount of work involved, our vendor, the car’s current owner, purchased it later in the year and commenced what became a painstaking, decade-long restoration with incredible attention to detail, even making several visits to Romania to talk to people and track the cars history.

#39070 was coach-built as a one-off and is certainly not identical in shape to the factory-built cars. The front wings are completely different to the standard model and at the rear the spare wheel is set into the boot lid, reminiscent of the prototype SS90 that Jaguar made in 1935.

The quality of the restoration is simply exceptional, however, although fully restored; the engine, gearbox, axle, chassis and 90% of the body are original. The restoration was completed in 2011 and only around 1,500 miles have been covered since then. Supplied with the car are folders full of history (too much to photograph) and many happy hours could simply be spent going through these and learning about this unique car’s history. Included in the files are, a substantial number of invoices, detailed photographs of every aspect of the restoration, history sourcing and even correspondence with King Michael himself.

 A beautiful and historically important car that would be welcome at any of the worlds most prestigious motoring events and Concours d’Elegance.