Jaguar LEGENDS
WALTER HASSAN OBE
BORN IN 1905, Wally Hassan was one of Britain’s most outstanding engineers, who achieved great success and fame with Bentley, Coventry Climax and Jaguar over a period of 70 years. He started with Bentley Motors in the 1920s – aged just 15 years – as a fitter and was soon established as the best racing mechanic, so was allocated to the Bentley boss and Le Mans racer Woolf Barnato, with whom he became a great friend.
He then took a job at ERA and, a few years later in 1938, moved to join Bill Heynes at SS Cars, later to become Jaguar. During the Second World War, Hassan served with the Bristol Engine Company and returned to Jaguar once hostilities had ended. There he set about developing the great XK engine. He then went on to join Harry Mundy at Coventry Climax and, in the ’50s, he developed the new F1 engine for Colin Chapman at Lotus. It was a tremendous success, winning two championships for Jim Clark and Lotus. But Jaguar took over Coventry Climax in 1963 so Hassan returned to the company he’d loved. He began working on Jaguar’s V12, which turned out to be one of the smoothest, most powerful and most refined V12s ever made.
Wally Hassan was a gifted engineer who had the most extraordinary memory. Bentley racer Frank Clement said he knew every inch of, and every nut and bolt on, the cars – and still did, even 60 years later – as well as recalling the details of all the engines with which he’d been involved. Today he’s remembered best for his excellent XK and Jaguar V12 engines, but his prowess was proved to similar effect by his Coventry Climax F1 engines and Bentley’s success at Le Mans.