Article Length: 32 pages
Vertical Tailfin & a Couple of Cams is the story of small Coventry sedan maker's quest to become a tires-up manufacturer after the war. It is a tale of talent, foresight and unintended consequences.
Join us as Norman Dewis brings these events alive on the phone.
VTF&CC is presented here in the e-lit format, like our cd 'View from the Mouth of the Dragon'. So follow the drop shadow links.
It was a fantasy in metal. Deep Scottish blue, rounded, front lowered to intense gaze at pavement. The U-shaped sheet of perplex wrapping the single seat cockpit on right, blending into driver’s headrest ascending to tail fin vertical. Metal tonneau cover for rules required passenger seat on left replaced in this most unlikely of settings with its own wrap around windscreen. Amidst the Cal Mille attendant race craft in afternoon asphalt shadow Malcolm Sayre’s D type rose forward in singular sight. All around it faded into pale distance. In provocative repose, silently it told a tale of formidable result; the unintended consequences for a reemerging Coventry company running short of funds shortly before their first post war auto show. The grand effort of William Lyons, William Haynes and Wally Hassan and to recreate the prewar Jaguar company as a tires-up manufacturer through manufacture of their own engines. An engine of unlikely design, for English series production, to power the sedately elegant sedans they envisioned building the company’s reputation upon.
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