JAGUAR: PERFORMANCE AND PRIDE.

US,Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price- clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher price.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,colour photographic dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - one tiny,tiny closed tear/nick to upper,top,right-hand corner.Top edge clean apart from some
miniscule,sporadic spotting/foxing towards the corners; fore-edges bright and clean,contents bright,tight and near pristine - an unread copy? Bright,clean,unblemished,publisher's dark maroon,simulated leather textured,rexine(?) boards with crisp,bright,stamped gilt letters to upper board and spine/backstrip and immaculate tan eps.US,Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st thus,6-256pp [paginated] includes intro,20 chapters,580 contemporary b/w+colour photographs throughout the text and the book,specifications of selected Jaguars and an index; plus [unpaginated] title page and double-page colour photographic contents list/table.
Celebrated automotive journalist Pete Lyons joins with the Auto Editors of CONSUMER GUIDE to illuminate this hallowed marque in all its tantalizing hues,with particular focus on the overtly sporting cats.
Authoritative,incisive text races along with the swirl of personalities and politics that are the Jaguar legend.Lively writing puts you behind the wheel:Revel in the rush of an E-type's acceleration; wince at the rasp of a D-type's exhaust,feel the fight in an XK-SS's steering. Hundreds of colour photographs reveal the great cats in compelling detail.Scores of rare pictures from Jaguar's own files unveil prototypes that led to the production sedans,sports cars,and racers.
It is no exaggeration to say that the most important of them,the XK 120 of 1948,helped rejuvenate a nation's belief in itself.Its seductive shape and magnificent engine brought acclaim - and orders - from all continents,reassuring Britons that their beleaguered island could still produce something of international value after WWII's devastation. Designed purely as a road car,the XK 120 nonetheless won innumerable races and rallies,while its double over-head cam six powered Jaguar to a monumental five wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The XK 120's basic design was sound enough to survive into 1961, whereupon Jaguar sprang once again with the wondrous E-type.Here was another epochal design and a sports car fantasy come true.Awed by the sensuous power of its body,'Road & Track' called it "the greatest crumpet collector known to man".But there was substance here,too. The XK-E,as it was known in America,put on the road performance and technology pioneered by Jaguar's Le Mans winning D-type.Beneath its voluptuous hood lurked first that rapier XK six,and then Jaguar's silken,predatory V-12. 'Jaguar: Performance and Pride' also is the saga of Jaguar's founder,William Lyons.
Savvy and ambitious,he was a motorcycle sidecar manufacturer who in the late 1920's began his own car line by fashioning sexy bodies on other makers' sedate chassis.Lyons had no formal training as an engineer or stylist.Rather,he possessed an unerring grasp of aesthetics,value,and promotion.Critics hailed the elegance,low cost, and high performance of his machines.England's royalty recognized his genius with a knighthood.
From nearly the beginning,Lyons' creations had a spirit that encouraged enthusiastic driving.After the war,when finally they were Jaguars inside and out,an even more feral nature emerged.His sedans took "saloon" racing by storm,snaring chequered flags from Silverstone to Monte Carlo; one,the 3.8 Mark II,won the Tour de France four consecutive times.
A parade of ever-more-respected road cars culminated in the magnificent XJ12 of 1973 and the cultured XJ-S of 1975.Sir William relinquished control of his company in the mid sixties only to witness inept management push it to the brink of corporate extinction.He died in 1985,aged 83,but not before Jaguar had begun a revitalization.And through it all,the proud cats never abandoned the field of competition. Privateers kindled the embers as the factory gradually returned to racing,crowning its comeback with stirring victories at Le Mans in 1988 and '90.A new era dawned when Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar in 1990.
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