Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine issue 115 | Page 78

Jaguar Legend

Driver Norman Dewis
Awarded Order of the British Empire
(Whitley, Coventry – December
31st 2014). In a career spanning
33 years of testing and developing
many seminal and celebrated Jaguar
cars, the exceptional achievements
of legendary 94-year-old former test
driver Norman Dewis have been
recognised and rewarded in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List, with
Norman receiving the award of an
Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Norman Dewis OBE developed
no less than 25 significant Jaguar
cars and is widely regarded as Britain’s greatest test driver. His automotive CV is remarkable: he developed
the multiple Le Mans-winning Ctype and D-type racing cars, the pio-

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neering XK 140 and 150 sports cars,
the classic 2.4/3.4 and Mk II saloons,
plus the Mk VII and Mk VIIM models,
the legendary E-type (including the
Lightweight E-type), the XJ13 midengined prototype, the world-class
XJ saloons, the XJ-S and the ‘XJ40’
models.
Dewis was also co-driver to the
British racing hero Sir Stirling Moss in
a C-type in the 1952 Mille Miglia and,
in 1953, set a 172.412 mph production car speed record in a modified
Jaguar XK 120 on a closed section of
the Jabbeke highway, Belgium. He
also drove a 190 mph works D-type
in the dramatic 1955 Le Mans 24hr
race and competed in the famous

Goodwood Nine Hours in the 1950s.
At 94 years old, Dewis is one of
the last living links to the golden era
of the British motor Industry; those
post-World War II years when Jaguar
rebuilt itself into a champion sports
car maker.
During his 33 year career, Dewis
completed more than a million test
miles at an average speed of 100
mph-plus and survived high-speed
crashes in the days before seatbelts,
without ever breaking a single bone.
He also played a vital role in developing the revolutionary Dunlop disc
brake.
During 2014, Dewis spearheaded
Jaguar’s 60th anniversary celebra-