Jaguar Enthusiasts Club

Malcolm Sayer

Chief Engineer and Technical Director

Malcolm Sayer

May 21, 1916 - April 22, 1970

Malcolm Sayer was an aircraft and automobile designer. His most famous works are Jaguar E-type, Jaguar XJ13 and Jaguar XJ-S. He spent the last twenty years of his life working for Jaguar Cars Ltd and was one of the first engineers to apply aircraft design principles to automobiles. Sayer was born May 21, 1916 in Cromer, Norfolk. He was educated at the Great Yarmouth Grammar School where his father taught mathematics and art. At the age of 17, he received a prestigious scholarship and attended Loughborough College (later Loughborough University) in the department of aeronautical and automotive engineering, receiving honorary first class degrees. During World War II, Malcolm Sayer worked for the Bristol Aircraft Company, designing aircraft. After the end of the war, Malcolm Sayer went to Iraq in 1948 to work at the University of Baghdad, where he established an engineering department. At this time in Iraq, he met a German professor who helped him better understand the mathematical approach to developing a method for calculating aerodynamic curves. In 1950 Malcolm Sayer returned to the UK and in 1951 joined Jaguar Cars Ltd. He called himself an industrial designer and artist and hated the term Joined Jaguar Cars Ltd. He called himself an industrial designer and artist and hated the term Joined Jaguar Cars Ltd. He called himself an industrial designer and artist and hated the term "stylist", saying that he is not a hairdresser. His authorship belongs to the following body designs: Jaguar C-type, Jaguar D-type, Jaguar E-type, Jaguar XJ13, Jaguar XJ-S (although the car began to be produced after Sayer's death). His main merit was that the design of the car "worked" both aerodynamically and visually. He developed a technique for calculating aerodynamic curves using tables, work now done by sophisticated computer-aided design software. On April 22, 1970, Malcolm Sayer died at the Regent Hotel in Leamington Spa of a heart attack at the age of 53.

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