First time I’ve seen good live colour footage of Jaguar’s founder and I’m in awe of the man. A lot more softly spoken than I imagined. A true legend of motoring...

My father told me the tale of when he & a colleague went to Jaguar Cars on an engineering visit for Lotus Cars & they drove there in a Lotus Europa which they parked in the Visitors Parking area. Whilst at lunch, Sir Wiliam Lyons came in, made a beeline straight for them & said ''Are you the Lotus chaps...?'' It seems Sir William was VERY impressed with what Lotus Cars was achieving at that time as a company, & spoke to them with both encouragement & friendliness, & they later found out whilst they had earlier been in the factory, Sir William was in the car park admiring & inspecting the Europa from all angles...!

Great interview with one of the pillars of the British motor industry. Comes across as a very humble, down to earth man. He comes from the era when being boastful and show boating was seen as a sign of desperation. Better to have quiet integrity and let the work you have nurtured and helped create do the talking.

Rip sir William Lyons you made the best jaguar's in the world thank you!

what a man, what cars, and what a company - no other could offer or even match his cars performance/price. LEGEND!

Thanks for posting this marvellous video. I an a complete Jaguar nut. Will not drive anything other. What a very distinguished man Sir William was. The XJC was his baby. He mentioned problems with the back. But there was real difficulties with the doors, they were so long, that, they would sag, and because he insisted that the frame be pillarless they had problems making the windows watertight. It came to market three years later than intended, and never sold in the numbers anticipated. But what a car!

Thanks so much for posting this - Sir William was one of my heroes - great to see him talking about his cars.

what an amazing man. you know there are days where I really wish I had the chance to work with folks like this back in the day

The man which designed the worlds 8th miracle...that's the E-TYPE . THANK YOU, MAY GOD REST YOUR SOUL!

RIP Sir William Lyons, he was a brilliant man!!

Thanks very much. First interview with Sir William that I've seen, and he takes us right through Jaguar's history. Unmissable.

Besides all his other considerable skills and talents, Sir William Lyons had a wonderful eye for good design, and wielded a personal influence on the styling of every sports car and saloon produced while he ran the company (and it shows).

A man who must have been incredibly proud of not just Jaguar , but of the fact that the XJ6 and 12 series models from 69 till 92 w.ere are and always will be the finest representaion of luxury motoring , in fact motoring perfection . The other makes could never and will never be able to match the series XJ's on any level . Later Jags without Sir William have lost the plot sensationaly

Sir William Lyons great man!

A Genius , in our time

What an amazing find. I just thought, I wonder if Sir William has given any interviews, and here is the evidence; literally just posted onto KZfaq! I remember Tony Bastable on 'Figure it Out' back in the 70's. Good quality here, so I assume this is taken from super 16 broadcast film stock, as any domestic recording device (video) would never look or sound like this, (no Beta or Video 2000 in 1977).

Fabulous video!Obviously too much to ask,but I think it was perfect!

8 people putting thumbs down, how can you?

Lyons and Norman both absolute legends.

Wonderful man, great company, lovely cars. Like much of British business, just needed a few more people skilled in modern commercial practice without being mere bean counters.

Henry Ford had nothing on this man. From a motorcycle sidecar shop, William Lyons grew one of the world's great automotive brands. In a country as notorious for inept management as it was for Marxist labor unions bent on revolution, he hired the best people to run things and built a state-of-the-art factory so efficient, the cars it produced cost less than half the competition. His keen eye for design resulted in some of the most beautiful sedans and sports cars ever built. All of British society, from gangster bosses to the Queen, wanted to be seen in his cars. Only after his retirement and the factory's takeover by hopelessly incompetent British Leyland did Jaguar's reputation suffer - and then only for a few years. Today under Tata's ownership the line is better than ever, and it remains 100 percent British in design and manufacture. Somewhere Sir William is smiling.

Great vid, cheers for posting.

Thanks. Still daily driving a s2 XJ6 in 2020 and doubt i will ever part with it.

Thanks for uploading this...Love my 07 XJ6.

Appropriate British gentlemen and a car heaven

Legend, Genius . . . . nothing else to say.

Fascinating interview.. good stuff...

So good to see the inventor of my car

It seems to me that the major reason why Lyons and his team were able to produce the cars economically was flat out competence. He had good engineers who got stuff right and they didn't have to spend money sorting out messes (it's called "development engineering" and to my chagrin, I've done perhaps more than my fair share of it).

Still love the xj40 the last great jaguar that wasn't a rebadged replateformed ford Scorpio it's kinda poetic the last car he designed was the first car I actually sat in the driver's seat as a child that smell of the xj40 burned into my nostrils still my favorite sad what jaguar became after he died from the e type xk 120 mk 2 420 g xj6 xjs and finally the xj40 one hell of a body of work Mr jaguar rest in peace

I’m proud to own an XJ6!

LEGEND...

I wonder if Sir William. & Enzo Ferrari ever met?. Considering even Enzo said. That the E-Type was the beautiful looking car, ever 🙂

Wonderful!

The Legend sir William

Legend, his eyes look very switched on like his words......

amazing

Sir William Lyons dearly loved wire wheels and I'm happy to discover that he didn't approve of head tests, but I'm in total agreement with his dislike of mirrors on the wings. I call them alien obstructions. You learn something new every day.

Lyon...Heart

I hope Jaguar survives - it should be a market leader today

132 mph / 212 kph was an amazing speed for the fifties. How I wish the present Jaguars had retained true elements of the William Lyons period up to the Series 3 XJ and even the X300 and X350. With the exception of the XJS, all of the cars were unmistakably Jaguar. Think of the XKs, the E-Type, the Mk 7 pictured here which became the Mk 8 and Mk 9, then the much updated Mk 10, and the Mk 2, the S-type, the 420 - all of them were beautiful and could only be Jaguars. Now one might mistake a recent model for a Hyundai, Kia, Volvo or some other (let me be polite) non-descript shape.

🤝

Design and manufacture a car like that in 3 months!!

Nothing like a Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.

doublin' down on the loaf joke

Great cars !! Love the SS100 Too bad Sir Willam never mentions the True Mastermind behind the development and early years of the company Mr William Walmsley was the mastermind and a genius Without Mr Walmsley, Jaguar Cars would never have been

Ask him what he thinks of British Leyland? M.

A shrewd negotiator. M.

if you see the body of the xk120 I have got the feeling, thatcthe design of the body was influenced by the body of the prewar BMW 328. The engine - ohv Design - was very good design. But manufactoring was far away from modern shops. Just have a look on the early 1960s videos on youtube an compare the shop of Jaguar and Mercedes ("Fertigung W111" the fintail sedans). Mercedes state of the art in 1959/60. Jaguar oldfashioned manufactoring in a dirty plant ans a hell of manual add-on-work needed. Sir William is a real gentleman - but economically without a longstanding economical succsess and the challenge of poor quality of workmanship in his shops. - and the Leyland disaster. I like the XJ design very much. BUT compared with Mercedes S-Class of it's time I'm sorry to say, that the XJ is a perfect city car - never ever be too far away from next repair / service shop.