Harry Webster UK car designer dies - TR series, Herald Stag

Harry Webster CBE , was fairly typical of the sound, decent, hard working, engineers that started working on the bench and ended up becoming , was one of the UK motor industry's great and pioneering engineers. A modest, quiet and unassuming man with a lively sense of humour his design flair, leadership and drive resulted in the post war revival of Triumph motor cars. An engineering vision not matched by the boneheads who ran UK automotive manufacturing into the ground.

He worked on the groundbreaking and iconic TR series of sports cars and also created the Herald, it's derivative the Vitesse and the Spitfire sports car. He also wasn't afraid to buy in design from the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti.

Born during WW1 in 1917, and started as an apprentice at the Standard Motor Company in 1932, he attended Coventry Technical College.

Harry became chief executive engineer at Leyland Motors in 1967 replacing the brilliant creator of the Mini, Alec Issigonis as the company's technical director following yet another merger that created British Leyland in 1968.

TR enthusiasts worldwide admire his cars,(not without their faults however), which introduced the first disc brakes (TR2) and the first independent rear suspension(TR3) on a production car.

Pic is my Dad's Herald in Wales approx 1958 which was a 2 tone -WOW!! a sort of purpley lavender colour with "Sebring" white body flashes. Sebring was a famous Californian Race track . The headlight cowls rusted almost instantly and new front tyres were needed every 7,000 miles, but you could "de-coke" it sat on the front wheel.

Daily Torygraph Obituary here
Independent Obituary here
Times Obituary here
Wikipedia entry here