In 1919 my grandfather opened a Hupmobile Garage and in 1934 acquired Oldsmobile. He died in 1950 when my dad took over. My father raced an Allard J2X Lemans to a C Modified Regional Championship his first season 1954, and decided to build his own race cars and add foreign car franchises. He first built to MK I Jomars using Dellow chassis, which were shipped over from England. He and two of his mechanics hand hammered the aluminum bodies and took them racing. Gus Ehrman drove one quite a bit, and by the end of 1955 they had developed quite a reputation for longevity (Course record for limerock 1955), but with solid axle and cable brakes the cars left a lot to be desired. He father then saw an add for a race proven chassis by TVR. In actuallity the chassis had never been raced. My dad asked for a chassis (7C101) which the hammered a body on to and proceded to brake suspesion components, such that the whole project was shelved for then end of the 1956 season until they could solve the problem. My father was quite impressed with the over all design of the chassis and ordered 3 more racing chassis.
The season of 1957 brought extraorinary good results for 3 of the Team Jomars, such that my dad asked if TVR would build a Roadcar. In a nut shell thats how it started. Automobile quarterly (Johnathan Stein) and I wrote a 13 page version that really finally set the story straight. Due to numerous reasons, the last of which was a last minute change to the contract by Derrick Harris ("new" solicitor for Layton Sports Cars producers of TVRs and Jomar Sports Cars (alias TVR)) for a minimum of 50 cars per year instead of the 5 they'd agreed on, my dad suspend relations on July 7th 1959. Luckily for me, my dad kept over 329 letters spaning the 4 years, between himself and Bernard Williams (Trevors Partner). My father and Bernard gained a close relationship, but as a large amount of investors got involved at the end of 1958, they started to push Trevor and Bernard slowly out of the piture. By 1960 my dad had acquired, AC, MG, Alfa, Jag, Talbot Lago, Sunbeam, etc. It was the largest foreign car business in NE. Today its just Oldsmobile and Volvo.
Ten racing chassis where brought in, and approximately 16 coupes although I only have invoices for 13, the last 3 possibly arrived in June 1959, when it was all ending.
First and second: Two Jomar Mk1s at Thompson in 1956 or 1957. Photos by Alex Saidel.
Left: Two MkII Jomars at Woodwork 10.
Center: A supercharged Climax engine in an aluminum body Jomar at Woodwork 10.
Third: The Jomar cockpit.
Right: A Jomar coupe at Woodwork 17.
This row: A TVR chassis Jomar at Woodwork 99.
There is an article on the Jomar in Automobile Quarterly vol 35 no 2.