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Jowett Javelin and Jupiter - innovative, but only moderately successful

Name: Jowett Jupiter 1949
Brand: Jowett

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Created on April 1, 1982

Text:

Halwart Schrader

Photos:

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Jowett Javelin (1947) - early post-war design

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Jowett Javelin (1947) - four-cylinder boxer engine with around 1200 cm3

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Jowett Javelin (1947) - innovative limousine

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Jowett Javelin (1949) - also a bench seat at the front, gearshift on the steering wheel

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Jowett Javelin (1949) - View of the back seat

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Jowett Javelin (1949) - the wooden dashboard

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Jowett Javelin (1947) - Spare wheel underneath the trunk

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Jowett Javelin (1947) - aerodynamically shaped bodywork

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Jowett Javelin (1949) - the front doors open to the rear

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Jowett Javelin (1949) - with open hood at the 1949 Geneva Motor Show

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - A look under the hood

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - Test car in winter

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - Test car in Zurich

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - test car with open hood and raised radiator

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Jowett Javelin (1948) - at the Geneva Motor Show 1948

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Jowett Javelin Mark III (1953) - contemporary in design and carefully styled - at the Geneva Motor Show in 1953

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Jowett Javellin (1950) - embellished new instrument panel - Geneva Motor Show 1950

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - at the 1950 Geneva Motor Show

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Jowett Javelin (1952) - Circular instruments on walnut dashboard

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - four-door sedan with six seats

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Jowett Javelin (1950) - four-door test car

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Jowett Javelin (1952) - Transparency drawing

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Jowett Jupiter (1949) - Chassis of the sports car, then still called ERA Jupiter

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Jowett Jupiter (1950) - Tubular frame of the sports car - Geneva Motor Show 1950

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Jowett Jupiter (1948) - Chassis of the sports car, then still called ERA Jupiter

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Jowett Jupiter (1949) - longitudinally mounted four-cylinder boxer engine

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Jowett Jupiter (1949) - View of the underbody

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Jowett Jupiter (1950) - the four-cylinder boxer engine

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Jowett Jupiter (1950) - View of the engine

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Jowett Jupiter (1950) - View of the engine at the 1950 Geneva Motor Show

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Jowett Jupiter (1951) - at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1951

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Jowett Jupiter (1951) - between the prototype and an MG at the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans

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Jowett Jupiter (1953) - Rally Monte Carlo 1953, Latune-Gay

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Jowett (1952) - Le Mans 1952 - Driver Becquart

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Jowett Jupiter Beutler (1951) - special bodywork from Switzerland

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Summary

The Jowett Javelin, introduced in 1947, was an interesting and innovative new design on the post-war market. The four-door saloon with a boxer front engine was very convincing, but the Jupiter sports car, which even won Le Mans class victories, was even more famous. This retrospective tells the story of the two almost forgotten models and can be seen in many historical illustrations and in the sales literature of the time.

This article contains the following chapters

Setting new standards
With ERA support
Interest in America
Even more sporting successes
Weak business
Aftermath
Good sales figures for the sedan
Technical data Jowett

Estimated reading time: 6min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Jowett, which never became well known outside the UK, was the creation of brothers Benjamin and William Jowett, two engineers from Bradford in Yorkshire. They built their first car in 1906. The history of the early Jowett automobiles is long and not without interest. The Bradford team never managed to produce large numbers, but they always found just enough buyers for their vehicles to make it worthwhile to continue. And when, after the end of the Second World War, car manufacturing in Great Britain got going again, Jowett was also involved. With the Javelin, an unorthodox small saloon, Jowett set new standards in 1947. In contrast to almost all other domestically produced cars, the Javelin had independent front and rear suspension with torsion bar suspension, an aerodynamically favorable body shape and a four-cylinder boxer engine, albeit a pre-war design.

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