A Cup of Tea With… Norman Dewis
Our friend, Norman Dewis, passed away in June aged 98. PC got to chat with him over a friendly cuppa a little while back and, as usual, he was on top form
PC’S tribute to Norman in a never before published interview.
‘We thought they were better than Jaguar’
Few people did as much for Jaguar as Norman Dewis. As the marque’s chief test driver from 1952 to 1985, he played a major part in developing cars from the XK140 to the XJ40. In retirement, he still championed Jaguar as a roving ambassador for the company. It was a brand he loved and, in return, classic car enthusiasts loved him and his stock of always entertaining anecdotes from an era when driving from Coventry to Geneva overnight in an E-type wasn’t an impossible dream.
Q How did you come to work for Jaguar in the first place?
‘Well, I’d done my apprenticeship at Armstrongsiddeley before the war. After it (I was an air-gunner on Blenheim bombers), I worked for Lea-francis, doing the same sort of job as I’d do at Jaguar. It was a lovely firm and made a good car; we thought they were better than Jaguar really. I got a phone call from Jaguar to say they’d heard good reports, and that I’d also built my own race car, and would I like to go for an interview? I said I wasn’t really interested, but I’d come and have a chat. After the interview, I still wasn’t that bothered. But they were keen, so I went for the big one… and asked for £2 a month! I was told that was one of the biggest salaries they were paying in engineering – ‘Don’t, for God’s sake, tell anybody what you’re getting paid!’. I laugh about that.’
Q Hang on, you built your own race car?
‘Yes, it was a 500cc one, just after the war. It was cheap racing. It had a Rudge semiradial engine. It was just the fun of it really.’
Q What was it like working with Sir William Lyons?
‘He was a hard businessman. Never called anybody by their first names. But that was his way. He held you responsible for things – if you had a job, it was your responsibility to get stuff done. If he had anything to say, he’d say it to you, that’s what I liked about him.’
Q What a time to work for Jaguar though.
‘Everybody was an expert in their field, people like Malcolm Sayer the stylist. I then had to test everything and sign it off. You get a great emotion about that; this top team would put everything together, then I’d get to sign it off. And with the racing cars, you’d drive it to Le Mans, win the race, and then drive it back. You can’t explain the feeling because you’d beat Mercedes, Ferrari, the lot.’
Q Are you surprised that Malcolm Sayer wasn’t more renowned?
‘That’s been a bone of contention for a long time. He never got the recognition he should have had. In my opinion, he was the greatest aerodynamicist in the world. And to this day, nobody knows his formula, how he did it. I used to be in his office a lot and on the walls was all this paper with different coloured lines and lots of figures. When he died, nobody knew what they meant. A great man.’
Q Did you realise what you were creating with the E-type?
‘No, no. None of us knew the impact it would have. Had we known, Jaguar could have certainly put the price up. I think it was sold too cheaply. Look what you got for £2000-odd. First 150mph sports car to be sold to the
Q
general public – that was almost Grand Prix speed back then. I remember Enzo Ferrari coming over at Geneva. He said, ‘Norman, you did a good job on this one. It looks perfect, better than we could make at Ferrari’. An amazing machine.’
When you got the call to take the E-type 77RW to Geneva overnight, did you think you’d manage it?
‘No, I didn’t think I’d do it. I said ‘I’ll get there, but I’ll never do it overnight.’ But everything went right. It was just one of those things. You wouldn’t do it today. When we had the 60th anniversary cavalcade from Coventry to Geneva, two of the press boys said they were going to try it. They didn’t beat me. And my run was with slowing down often to try and read a map, no sat-navs then. I didn’t get stopped by the police at all though.
Q And you only made the ferry because the ship’s crew were fascinated to see the car?
‘Well, it had only been announced the day before. They’d closed the ramp, but then they saw me and let me on. The crew all came to look at the car while I was trying to get some sleep.’
Q Your love of the E-type is well-known. What are your other favourite Jaguars?
‘If I had the choice of a car, apart from the E-type, I would go for the XK150S. Lovely car. Everything was right; the weight distribution, the handling and ride were beautiful. It is a nice car, and of course, the first production car to have disc brakes. I felt it all came together with the 150S. That’s from the point of view of the production cars of course. With the race cars, it’s the 1955 D-type.’
Q The XJ40 was the last car that you worked on before retirement.
‘I had a bit of a row over that with John Egan (the chairman of Jaguar Cars). It was released while I still had 14 tests still to do. I asked if there was any give with the launch date, and he said no. ‘Well, I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but if you’re releasing it, I’m not going to be signing it off.’ In his office afterwards, he asked who was going to sign the car off. ‘I retire in two weeks’ time, I’m not worried,’ I replied. And I was proved right – it was the worst Jaguar ever made, for the customer. It had so many problems. To give him his due, years later he was giving a talk, and he said that the biggest mistake was launching it too early. And he pointed me out in the audience and said: ‘That man, he was right. We should have listened.’
Q In a career of many highlights, what’s been the absolute best moment?
‘I think the record-breaking at Jabbeke in 1953, with the XK120. I loved doing that. That’s your achievement – you’ve done that yourself. It was nice to find we’d shattered the record, at 172.4mph. I can’t believe we did it with an XK120. It had a screwed down bubble canopy, just three inches above my head. I don’t think anybody could have done it if they were claustrophobic.’
Q So the bad moments. We suppose the 1971 XJ13 MIRA crash stands out?
‘Well, I also had crash in a C-type, a D-type, then the XJ13. They were big ones. The C- and D-types I was underneath. But I got out. I was at work the next morning after the XJ13 one. The magnesium alloy wheel collapsed. But it was part of the job.’
Q Even after retirement, you’ve remained very busy for Jaguar? Are you ever going to slow down?
‘It keeps me out of trouble. I was offered a job at Aston Martin and Ferrari, and somehow, I stuck with Jaguar. It certainly wasn’t for the money. But it was a nice little team and a successful company. Besides, when I get to 100, Jaguar has promised me that I can drive the XJ13 again, at 100mph. So that’s something to really look forward to.’
‘Record-breaking in 1953, with the XK120. I loved doing that’