Harris Mann

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Harris Mann (b. April, 1938) is a British car designer.^[1] Mann took over from Roy Haynes as chief stylist at British Leyland in 1970.

[edit] Biography

Harris Mann was born in London in 1938, and attended engineering school in Westminster. Mann's automotive design career started, first with the bus and coach building firm Duple, followed by a short time working in the U.S. with Loewy Consultancy. After a short spell of National Service back in the UK, Mann worked, first for Commer, then for Ford.

Cars on which Mann was involved at Ford included the first Escort and the Capri. Mann's boss at Ford, Roy Haynes, persuaded Mann to go with him when he moved to BMC to lead their design studio in Cowley in 1967.

Mann worked alongside Haynes on the BMC Marina project, and when the design department they were working in was relocated to Longbridge, Haynes left the company, leaving Mann to lead the design team for, what was by then, British Leyland (BL).

Mann took over the Allegro project, and then worked on the Diablo project, which became the Princess. This was followed by the work for which he most famous, the Triumph TR7. His final projects with BL were the Metro, and the Maestro. After these he left and went freelance. In this capacity he worked for MG Rover on the MG 'Z-Series' (the ZR, ZS, and the ZT).

[edit] References

• "Harris Mann Interview" (January 2005). Classic Cars Magazine: 70–73. 
• "The Designer: Harris Man" (December 2004). Classic Car Weekly. 

[edit] Notes