1951 Jowett Jupiter

A very rare but well known (in select circles) early 1950s luxury Drophead.

Aluminum body over steel framing,, strong tubular chassis designed by ex Auto Union designer (brought to England after the war,) Independent front suspension, torsion bars front and rear, and powered by a Jowett built flat four engine with twin Solex carbs and located at the very front of the car, in front of both the transmission and radiator. And, the entire front of the car including the front fenders opens to access the engine bay (much like a Bug Eye Sprite).

With the four speed transmission operated by a column shifter, the interior will accommodate three people who wind up with the ease of being close and getting to know each other. Rather well.

The entire car underwent a wildly expensive, absolutely thorough restoration which included a new cloth top, new chrome, rebuilt gauges, new interior, wiring, electrics, paintwork, and the overall effect (with wind up windows) is that of a smaller, less powerful Jaguar XK140 DHC.
See, this is the way the hobby works.....you spend a fortune having your Porsche 356, or Jaguar E Type or MG TC or Morgan Plus 4, of Healey 3000 expensively restored...take it to shows and what happens? Six identical cars all in a line, and who knew, two of them are better than your expensively restored example. Drat. Talk about a disappointment.

Something I learned many years ago..........hence, for the past twenty years, have beaten the system by showing a series of VERY unusual cars. Maybe a decade ago, my 1952 Morgan Flat Rad, which won its class at Sebring, was at a local important show And when the judges gave me a blue ribbon, their comment was 'great car, think you might wash it next year?' Another year was my ex race 1966 Lotus Elan Coupe.....took it to the Greenwich concours and took a first place....I think the judges like the mud in the wheel wells making it LOOK like a race car just unloaded from a trailer.

Another year also at Greenwich, showed one of my Mallock race cars.....despite the collection of wonderful Ferraris and Porsche, the little Mallock took the blue ribbon...guessing 'cause it was VERY different.

A few years ago, my 'show car' was the last Morgan Trike built in 1952. What fun watching little kids crawling under the rear confirming.....yes, just one wheel! And last year, showed my 1952 Dellow Mk IIb....and the end of the show, at Greenwich, the chief judge wandered over and said 'you got more points than any other car.....and we won a special Blue Ribbon! the point of all of this is that each of these cars, at the time, was fairly inexpensive BUT SUPER rare.

So, at the moment, we have a Turner (one of 161 out of 670 Turners built 1955-1965), this Jowett (one of under 900 built), TWO Dellows (out of around 220 built of all models), and the Greenwich winning Mallock. And very few Mallocks have been built since 1959.

And while a LOT of fun to rake these cars to shows (with not much chance of ever seeing another), the Turner is a dandy road and vintage race eligible race car, the Mallock is a super competitor historic race car, the Dellow Mk IIb is AACA accepted as a competition car and a fun road car, and the other Dellow has competed in VSCCA races. And, of course, the Jowett. Quite a selection of fun cars FAR less money than most show-able cars and think how much fun to have something most people have never heard of!

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