The chassis only was displayed in October at the London Motor Show which opened 28 September 1949 and the complete car for the first time in New York in April 1950.

Jowett through Lawrence Pomeroy of The Motor joined forces with ERA and they persuaded Eberan von Eberhorst, formerly with Auto Union, to come to England.

There was no external access to the boot (trunk) and the bonnet (hood) was rear hinged and opened complete with the wings.

An initial 75 chassis were supplied to external coachbuilders such as Stabilimenti Farina, Ghia Suisse, Abbott of Farnham and others in Britain.

This was a resurrection of the famous Ulster Tourist Trophy races of 1928-1936 previously run on the 13.7-mile (22.0 km) Ards circuit.

[9] The Autocar testers were enthusiastic about the car's performance, especially in view of the "well-known ... verve of the Javelin engine" and its "susceptibility to power output increase".

[9] The Jupiter's compression ratio of 8:1 was nevertheless higher than on most UK market cars in 1950, and some mild "pinging" was recorded using 72 octane fuel,[9] which was the highest grade normally available in Britain at the time.

In the 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans another example won its class at 13th overall, driven by Marcel Becquart and Gordon Wilkins.