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In his newly published and highly acclaimed book Norman Dewis of Jaguar - Developing the Legend,
author and site contributor Paul Skilleter recounts Norman's memories of the drivers he worked with in the '50s.
Norman knew Mike well both as a work colleague and as a close friend and had driven with him many times during
the course of his work at Jaguar. He also co-piloted car no 8 (Mike was in no 6) as part of the Jaguar team at the
1955 Le Mans race.
Here is that account, with kind permission from author Paul Skilleter.
Norman had become accustomed to the various strengths and weaknesses of all the works drivers
and formed an opinion of who were the best — in terms of
outright speed, and in their usefulness in providing feedback during testing.
On an all-round basis, says Norman, “I would put Moss right at the top. He was dedicated
and he had a lot of feeling for the car and, although he drove quickly, he was smooth; very
smooth. I’ve been with him a lot, and I’ve never known him to treat the car really hard. He
drove it to its limit, obviously, but he always had a nice touch with a motor car. In the Mille
Miglia we were driving fast, but I felt confident with him all the time. He’d got it under control.
“Stirling was one of the best that you could have in your team. Although he wasn’t an
engineer, he was able to pass comment about how he felt he would like the car to be, and to
suit his driving he was probably right. But he didn’t make a song and dance about it. He would just comment that ‘I
think if we did this’ or ‘Could we try that.’ Occasionally we’d agree to try it.
“But the one thing with Stirling, he was always dedicated to what he’d got to do, and that was, get out there,
drive the car quickly, and try to win the race. That was always in the back of his mind. A fully dedicated driver.
Brilliant. The sad thing is he never won the Formula One championship — so near, and if anybody deserved it, he did,
because the effort he put in was fantastic. I always said he was a credit to any team, and he proved it when he went to
Mercedes – he pulled off the Mille Miglia for them, and a few more races.
“Some of our people said he was aloof in those days and didn’t talk to them much, but I said, ‘No, he won’t now –
wait until after the race. Stirling is concentrating on what he’s got to do.’
“Rolt I thought was a good driver, and with his background in engineering he would say ‘I don’t think this
is right — why have you done so and so, Lofty?’ And Lofty would say, ‘Tony, just do your job!’ ‘OK, just thought I’d
mention it.’
“Hamilton was very, very rough. Peter Walker was a bit erratic. Peter Whitehead was a nice guy, but he was always
a little bit below par compared with what he could have been. I always reckoned Peter could have gone another half
a second quicker, but he never wanted to. He settled into his own rhythm, and although his times were probably a little
bit down on the rest of the drivers, he was very consistent and very reliable.
“As for Hawthorn — Mike was never in the same frame of mind two days running. He changed like the weather.
During some test sessions I’ve seen Mike just not wanting to drive. Then another time, he was bursting to go, gets in and
away he goes. Nobody could touch him when he was in that mood. Brilliant, but not consistent, whereas Moss was always consistent. Every time Moss got
in a car his mind was on one thing, and that was to drive that car to its limit, and be in front;
and he never had moods.
“Mike never discussed a lot about the cars. I don’t know what he was like at his garage
with his dad, but purely from the point of view of driving and working with Jaguar, Mike
never imposed his opinion or made any comments like ‘the car’s b—awful’ or ‘I don’t like
this’. He just got in and drove it.
“I was down at Silverstone testing in the early days of the D, and during the testing session
Lofty said to me, ‘I’ve been in touch with Mike and told him to come over. It’s a chance for
him to try it (the D-type) and we might get his impressions of what he feels about it.’ Mike
at that time was flying his plane. He landed just as I’d come in off the circuit. I got out the
car and Mike’s there.
“Then he turned straight round to England and he said, ‘Excuse me, Lofty, what am I here for?
What have you got me down here for?’ Lofty said ‘Well, there’s the D, you haven’t driven
it yet, I thought it might be a good opportunity.’ And Hawthorn just looked at him, pushed
his cap to the back of his head and said, ‘I don’t want to drive the car. I wish you hadn’t got
me down here — I was busy. Norman’s doing that, and when he says it’s all right, then I’ll
drive it. That will be good enough for me.’ And he didn’t drive it.
“Occasionally he’d come down and do some test work, yes, but that wasn’t his forte. He
liked to just turn up at the race, get in the car and drive it. ‘If Norman’s happy with it, I’m
happy with it.’ How well he drove depended on his mood or how he felt.
There was a reason for it, but only one or two of us knew — he had a health
problem, his kidneys, and I think his life span was possibly going to be only
about five or six years. That’s all he’d got. That’s why you saw the highs and
lows of Mike when he was racing.
“But mind you, when he was on form, nobody could touch him."
© 2006 Paul Skilleter
You can read Mike's Biography on this site and also a two-part account of his
death in 1959. There's also a video of Norman talking about
why his own D-type was faster than Mike's at Le Man in 1955 on our Videos page.
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