How to out run a helicopter on a GSXR 1000 Superbike by Guy Martin !

1938 show-stopper: William Lyons’ Jaguar SS100 3.5-litre Coupé Prototype

Visitors to the 1938 Earls Court Motor Show were stunned when the wraps came off a svelte two-seater coupé. Designed by a young, yet to be ennobled William Lyons, the car was the equal of anything from the Continent.

...imagine a 17-year-old Gordon March driving away in this sublime sporting coupé.

It was also expensive: at £595 it was the most costly SS Jaguar ever produced. Lyons, even at 37 ever the businessman, sold the car straight off the stand to a Mr Leo March who bought it for his son.

Which was a generous gesture – imagine a 17-year-old Gordon March driving away in this sublime sporting coupé.

As one would expect, the car was built in Coventry, with hand-beaten aluminium coachwork (from an outside company) carefully fitted to a wooden frame made in-house. Some extra brightwork under the bonnet made it even more special – and these touches can be seen today in the restored car now for sale at London-based specialist DD Classics.

Thankfully, Gordon March survived wartime service in the Royal Air Force, but when hostilities ceased he decided to parted company with his ‘Grey Lady’ to raise capital for a business venture. 

From then on, the elegant coupé was traded between collectors on both sides of the Atlantic, winning the Lord Montagu award for the most significant British car at the 1987 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.  By then it had been the subject of a restoration in the UK.

Taking in the lines of the car today, resplendent in its original colour scheme of gunmetal metallic with red leather, what images does it evoke? Well, there’s a little Bugatti Atlantic in its profile. And the rear styling clearly signals that of the XK120 Fixed-Head Coupé, announced only a decade or so later.

This SS100 remains a pre-War one-off but, with the benefit of hindsight, the ‘Prototype’ in its title refers more to the truly great Jaguars of the 1950s.

Photos by Jan Baedeker

The Jaguar SS100 3.5-litre Coupé Prototype is currently for sale at DD Classics in London

Takaaki Nakagami into MotoGP on a Production Honda?

The number of riders moving up to MotoGP from Moto2 continues to grow. Pol Espargaro is confirmed at Tech 3, while Scott Redding is expected to announce a move at Silverstone, almost certainly to the Gresini team aboard a Honda production racer. And now, the championship-leading duo looks set to be joined next year by Takaaki Nakagami, the Japanese rider currently riding for the Italtrans Moto2 team.

According to respected Spanish magazine Motociclismo, Nakagami will move up with Tady Okada’s Honda Team Asia structure. Okada’s ties to Honda mean that Nakagami will be riding a Honda production racer, the same bike to be fielded by both the Cardion AB team for Karel Abraham, and at Gresini for Scott Redding.

Nakagami has been the revelation of this season, the Japanese rider securing six front row starts and two podiums, one at Qatar and one at the last race in Indianapolis. Nakagami has been a frequent race leader, though his weakness is that he fades in the latter stages.

There is no doubt that having Nakagami in MotoGP would please series organizer Dorna. There has been a dearth of Japanese talent in the series, and former 250cc world champion Hiroshi Aoyama has never regained the speed he lost after his crash at Silverstone in 2010, in which he fractured a vertebra. Nakagami is younger, and turning into a real crowd pleaser.

Nakagami’s move, should it happen, would likely sound the end of Aoyama’s time in MotoGP, but it would also leave Yuki Takahashi out in the cold.

Takahashi is currently riding the Moriwaki Moto2 bike for IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia, the outfit set to move up to accommodate Nakagami. Takahashi has had a couple of disappointing seasons in Moto2, first with Gresini and now with Honda Team Asia.

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

Source: Motociclismo; Photo: © 2013 Scott Jones / Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved

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