01
Origins
The Javelin, designed by Gerald Palmer during the war and launched in 1947, was an astonishing thing to emerge from a small Bradford firm: a streamlined six-seater with a flat-four engine slung ahead of the axle, torsion-bar suspension all round, rack-like steering precision and an 80 mph cruise — a specification Europe's giants could not match. It won its class at Monte Carlo and outright honours at Spa, and the press adored it. Building such sophistication profitably was another matter; gearbox troubles and the costs of advanced engineering strained Jowett past endurance, and when body supplier contracts failed in 1953 the company wound down, ending car production entirely. Around 23,000 Javelins were built. Britain's industry absorbed the lesson badly: its most daring family car had come from its smallest maker, and died of it.
Jowett Javelin 1952 · homer----simpson · CC BY-SA 2.0
