SS Cars SS1

Here is a post Gaucho Man should enjoy. By the way, it will be the last one for the year, as I’ll be away during the Christmas season. See you back half-way through January, and advance greetings to all of you! :)

A little history

I suppose that there is no need to go through the early years of what would become Jaguar once more. How two friends, William Lyons and William Walmsley, set up the successful Swallow company building sidecars for motorcycles, then ventured into coachbuilding by fitting new sporty bodies to the plebeian Austin Seven has been told over and over again. Then, nine years into existence and carried by its initial successes, their company, Swallow, unveiled its very own car during the 1931 London Motor Show: the SS Cars SS1. Actually, Standard was responsible for a large share of the new model’s input, designing its chassis and providing its engines. Displacing 2100 or 2600cc, those couldn’t allow tremendous performance but the SS1 was in line with all previous Swallow products: it was an elegant and affordable sports car. The concept proved a winning one, 4200 copies of the SS1 being built until 1936. Among those, of particular mention is the striking Airline coupe, launched in 1934 and of which 624 were made. Interestingly, though it is the best remembered SS1 today, the Airline had been inspired by Walmsley but was disliked by Lyons. This wasn’t the only point on which the two partners couldn’t agree. Walmsley was satisfied enough with Swallow’s success, while Lyons only had expansion in mind. In the end, Walmsley gave up and sold his shares to Lyons in 1935. Under the latter’s guidance, SS would continuously develop: after a 1935 reorganization that saw the Swallow sidecars activities being separated from the SS automobile ones, then completely sold ten years later, SS changed its name to Jaguar, which would soon unveil the famous XK120 and enter the racing scene with the C- then D-Types. Lyons would remain at the helm of his company until 1972, designing most of its cars in the process, up to the legendary Jaguar XJ6. He would peacefully die in 1985.

About the model

Model: SS Cars SS1 Airline coupe
Year: 1935
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.39 of its Voitures Classiques press series
Acquired: brand new, in May 2007, in Souillac, France

A simple - not many separate parts and, in this Altaya version, wheels that are a little too thick - yet elegant rendition of the famed SS1. My rating is 13/20.

Renault Fuego

First of all, a warm welcome to C.G. Michaels, our newest follower. Many among our most recent friends come from Argentina though, so today I’d like to discuss a car they know quite well.

A little history

As the Renault 15 and 17 coupes were based on the popular saloon, the Renault 12, the French company logically decided after the replacement of the latter by the Renault 18 to introduce a brand new coupe derived from the newest car. Tastefully penned by Michel Jardin under supervision by Robert Opron, it would receive Fuego as a name.

Production of the Fuego started in October 1979, replacing the R15/17 at Renault’s Maubeuge factory. Introduction would wait until March 1980 and the Geneva motor show. Most of the critics at the time concentrated on the styling. Not that it wasn’t elegant enough – on the contrary – but some judged that the new Renault unfortunately looked too similar to the Porsche 924, noticeably sharing the same concept of a rear opening glass “bubble” hatch. Furthermore, the Fuego, a much more modest car than the German machine, suffered from the comparison. On the road, the Fuego enjoyed a safe and predictable behaviour, a characteristic unsurprisingly shared with the R18. Alas, it also shared its engines, with no performance version initially offered. But in the end, the biggest problem the Fuego had to face was the fact that it simply came too late on the market. The concept of a coupe based on a mid-range saloon, powered by a large selection of engines, had been invented by the Ford Mustang then transposed to Europe by the Ford Capri. The large success that the cars designed for that niche enjoyed throughout the Seventies was quickly vanishing due to the fierce competition offered by the compact GTIs, a concept inaugurated by the Volkswagen Golf.

Renault tried to improve the performances of the Fuego by grafting to it more potent engines: a 2.0-litre block came first for model year 1981, but the car had to wait two more years for an able 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, with which it could finally reach 200 kph. That was a pity, as the Fuego had a particularly slick body ideal for high speeds. Several of its equipments were quite advanced for the time, too. Such was the case of the onboard computer, the remote door lock system (a world first, that today probably equips any single new car sold in the world) or the turbo-diesel engine, common nowadays on coupes, but an ultra-rare choice back then.

All these efforts were to no avail to save a car that was born too late. Though the Fuego cannot be called a failure, it was quickly withdrawn from production in Europe, being built until 1985 in France and 1986 in Spain. Due to the totally different specificities of the local market, the Fuego enjoyed a much longer career, and comparatively a much more successful one, in Argentina where the very last car was constructed as late as in 1992.

About the model

Model: Renault Fuego GTL
Year: 1981
Maker: Norev
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: M6 as no.16 of its Renault Collection press series
Acquired: second hand with neither stand nor box, in July 2006, in Brive, France

Norev offers this interesting but rather old reproduction of the Renault Fuego. It is quite correct but is betrayed by its simple and poorly adjusted wheels and simplistic front end. I’d give 11/20 to this model.





Model: Renault Fuego GTX
Year: 1982
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.89 of its Nos Chères Voitures d'Antan press series
Acquired: brand new, in October 2007, in Souillac, France

Ixo’s version of the Renault Fuego is greatly helped by the fact that it is much more recent than Norev’s version. Alas, it suffers from poor adjustment of some parts - have a look at these large black lateral pieces to see how they poorly fit. This unfortunately brings my rating down to 12/20 when it could have been much higher.