Swallow Doretti

Swallow Coachbuilding had its origins in the pre-war frm, SS, which later became Jaguar. Swallow was the sidecar part of the firm, sold off after the war. To compensate for declining sidecar sales, it launched its own sports car, the Swallow Doretti, in 1954.
The Doretti used the mechanicals from a Triumph TR2 and was a crust above the TR with its hand-built aluminium body and leather trim; its price, accordingly, was higher than the TR2's by 230 pound. The Triumph parts fitted into Swallow's own tubular frame with an inner skin of steel. The result was a pleasing touring con- vertible capable of 100mph (slightly less than the TR2) and it sold rather well: 276 were made in its ten-month life. It was killed off after Jaguar itself objected that its former wing might affect its own sales. A 2+2 coupe version, dubbed the Sabre, never reached production, although three were built.
Addition: A story from the British Classic & Sportscars February of 1986 issue. p. 81 about Sir John Black, the Chairman of Standard: "Black was involved in the car accident... It occurred on November 3 [1953]. The car in question was the prototype of the Swallow Doretti, as made by Dorothy Anderson, Standard's Californian distributor, in conjunction with the Swallow Coachbuilding Co (1935) Ltd of Wolverhampton" + a photo of the wrecked car. This explains, why so many cars were headed for the States.
Someone contacted me recently (April, 1998) saying that the car mentioned above in the accident was actually the first production car (serial No 1000) and was returned to Swallow Coachbuilders and broken up.

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