This was fun to watch - such a charming old bloke with that Jowett. Many of those beauties made it to Australia...my Grandfather owned two of 'em as cheap second hand cars in the 1960's. Old Tom couldn't praise the Javelin enough - loved it to bits and it's very easy to see why. What a shame it couldn't have been a financial success because it is a genuinely wonderful design.
I can remember sitting in the back with my sister, as the Jowett Javelin was Dad's first proper car. I remember, it had a long slim table; you could clip onto the back of the front bench seat. It was quite old fashioned for the time. I think Dad bought it in about 1964/65. It was always an adventure going out in it though. Very happy days.
I got offered a Jowett Javelin for £15 in 1964. Just think what it would be worth today. I've had many great classics over my 51 years of driving and i have loved every one. I am grateful I had the chance to own many of the great old British cars and vans.
Jowett Jupiter. I still have a vivid memory from Childhood, of seeing a moving close line, of about 20 of them, in various colours, being driven along a countyry road, on their way to Liverpool Docks. I was about 10, so probably 1951. On another Vist ( to North Wales) I saw the New Post War Standard Vanguard, in similar place and order. No huge haulage trucks like today, I suppose.
My maternal grandfather had a Javelin - from new, I think. My mother was not at all mechanically minded, but she always said that you could tell a Javelin quite distinctly by its engine sound.
I can imagine. We didn't have many (or maybe any) Javelins in the USA, but when I was a kid, I had a dog that would only chase VW Beetles and Subarus. Pancake 4 engines make themselves known to everyone around.
My parents bought a Javelin in the early 1960s (in Sydney, Australia). I was still a kid. I remember it with fondness, although my mechanic father taught me some great swear words while he worked on it. As the video reveals, its greatest weakness was its gearbox. Ours used to lock in third gear. Daddy reassembled it several times, with no improvement. Thanks for the memories of this idiosyncratic car!
My parents had a Sunbeam Imp not long after they married. They had the Imp (1969 model) in the seventies and went all over the UK in it. My mum tells me it had a racing engine in it and on watching a Discovery program featuring the Imp, I guess it had the 1.6 liter all aluminium engine. I guess this was the case as dad told me it had twin carbs and he hated having to balance them, so for convenience substituted them for a single unit. They gave the car to a friend and I bet dad wishes he kept it
Between the East Coast Village's of Bempton & Flamborough just of B1229 there was a old disused chalk quarry that was used as a dumping site for anything and everything and this included motor cars and as a young lad in the 1950's I would go with my mates to see what there was it was like a playground,I know for a fact there are two Jowett Javlelin's down there plus a Humber Hawk and a Jaguar SS. Such a shame because we know now they are real collectors cars today, also there are countless motor bikes.The tip was of course eventually filled in.
Me and my family used to holiday a lot in North Wales and Blackpool in the early 50's, and it was a regular sight to see convoys of cars being driven in line, on the main trunk roads from Birmingham to the North West ie. Liverpool docks, for export to North America. No big transporter trucks back then. Among those we saw were--Jowett Jupitor's, Standard Vanguards, and Austin Healey's.
My father had one of these, and I remember it as a fast, safe and comfortable car. It's a pity that Jowett failed, but then so many other good carmakers also disappeared or lost their character when 'integrated' in the fifties and sixties.
My palls dad had a Javelin, one of the few cars in our street back in 1960, he was a Scottish international football player, so he could afford it I expect..
One of my old workmates was a Jowett fan, he was a coach painter one of the old school tradesmen. He loved his Jowetts, he had an operation for cataracts and it wasn't too successful. He lost his licence, and it broke his heart that he couldn't drive his beloved Jowetts.
They had an interesting design, with the flat 4 up near the bumper. I wonder what kind of turning circle the car had with such a wide engine between the front wheel housings.
My Father was going to buy a Javelin, but was put off by stories of cracking crank Shafts ? Was this a common fault or just the odd one or two. I was so disappointed that He didnt get one in 1950
Yes very true. Jowett made only their own vehicles, Jowett cars and Bradford Vans, and weren't owned by or affiliated to any other car maker. I think some of their bodies were made at Briggs motor bodies in Doncaster alongside the bodies for the Lanchester 10 6 light saloon. Briggs was eventually taken over by Ford to build the postwar "Pop". and Body production for other car companies was stopped. This may have been one of the factors that led to the demise of the Javelin. The Rootes group Comprised Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam and the range of Commer commercial vehicles
Great work. Love the cars, can't do a thing on my 2001 Ford Focus...I recently posted a series of videos featuring a Classic British Car Show in the Comox Valley in British Columbia. "45 Super Snipe","39 Ausitn 8", "39 BSA Scout", "Morgan Plus 8", "Jag E Type" and a Vincent Balck Shadow. cheers...Ed
I find it such a shame that these original films are chopped up into confusing bits *here and there all over the Internet.* Why don't you uploader-guys tell the viewer that _you've hacked a perfectly good logical story up into a shredded mess,_ so that at least they have half a hope of understanding why a Humber Super Snipe clip has been tacked onto the end of a Jowett Javelin, Hey?
