THE JAGUAR ‘DREAM TEAM’

JAGUAR COULD not have progressed so far in so short a time without an extraordinary team of engineers and designers, creating extraordinary and affordable cars. Here, in brief, are the men responsible for the XK, D-Type, E-Type and many more models that would embody the Jaguar credo of ‘Grace, Space and Pace’.

William (later Sir William) Lyons: Managing director in charge of concept and overall design. Lyons also supervised styling, with a talent so intuitive he could visualise the shape of a car before ever reaching for a sketch pad. Lyons devised the XK, E-Type and ‘compact’ Jaguars, finishing his tenure with the evocative XJC pillarless coupe.

William (Bill) Heynes: As chief engineer, Heynes, who had joined Jaguar from Humber in 1935 and stayed until 1989, supervised chassis and engine development for every new model produced by Jaguar in the post-WWII period. He was also the motivating force behind Jaguar’s Le Mans race programme which brought five wins during the 1950s.

Walter (Wally) Hassan: Began as a Bentley apprentice before moving to SS Cars and then Bristol. During the 1940s, Hassan was integral, as a member of the ‘Fire Watch’ team, to the development of four and six-cylinder versions of the XK engine.

Claude Baily: Spent his early working life with Morris and MG but joined Jaguar in 1940 as chief of engine development. While Baily worked beside the other Dream Team members in developing the XK, his role during wartime had chiefly been concerned with development of lightweight allterrain military vehicles.