It’s actually now been almost 70 years since the #JowettJupiter first hit the streets, but this #TBT photo depicts part the car’s 50th birthday at LeMans in 2000. In 1950, just a few months after its debut, the unconventional Jupiter won its class (and finished 16th overall) at the grueling 24 Heures. - #Jowett was a relatively small #British manufacturer which, before the war, had built very pedestrian machines - competent and dependable but not exciting. That all changed in 1947 with the arrival of the Jowett Javelin, a slick lightweight sedan with a sweet, revvy 1.5L flat four up front; all designed by Gerald Palmer (he designed almost all of the car, too, not just the body). The sophisticated Javelin was light years ahead of most other family cars of that era, including Detroit’s cars. With plenty of power, durable mechanicals, and a low center of gravity and stiff unibody (influenced by the Nash 600), Javelins were excellent rally cars, too. - In postwar Britain, automakers had to export cars for sale to be allocated the still-limited quantities of things like steel. With demand for cars weak in the U.K. and the most visible export being the MG TC, It wasn’t long before Jowett decided to build its own sports car. Teaming up with racecar builder ERA as consultants, the Jupiter was born. - The Jupiter mated a spaceframe chassis (designed with the help of ex-Auto Union engineer Robert Eberan-Eberhorst) with a lightweight aluminum body and the mechanical pieces of the Javelin. This combination produced arguably the most sophisticated British Sports car of the era short of the Jaguar XK120; the LeMans class win came just a few months after the car went on sale. - As good as the Jupiter was, it wasn’t easy to make, and just 825 (731 mk1s and 94 mk2s) were made. A further 75 chassis were made for coachbuilders, and there were many special bodies for these cars. In 1954, Jowett was working on a follow-up sports car with a fiberglass body, the R4, when crisis struck. Ford bought Jowett’s body supplier, Briggs, then BMC bought Brigg’s replacement, Fisher & Ludlow. In the time it took to find a new supplier, the company ran out of working capital and went under. (at Circuit des 24 Heures) https://www.instagram.com/oldmotors/p/BubzV8ZlYQN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1d8v58dtplhxu
