Malcolm Sayer

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Malcolm Sayer (1916-1970) was a designer of Jaguar Cars. He was one of the first engineers to apply principles of aerodynamics to car design. His designs include:

• Jaguar C-type (also called XK120-C, due to its being based on the Jaguar XK120)
• Jaguar D-type
• Jaguar E-type
• Jaguar XJS (although the car launched several years after Sayer's death)

According to Porter & Skilleter's biography of the founder of Jaguar, the legendary Sir William Lyons, Sayer was credited with playing a leading role in the unfolding story of Jaguar.

Born in Cromer, Norfolk, Sayer was Educated at Great Yarmouth Grammar School (where his father taught Maths and Art) and later at the then Loughborough College. He worked for the Bristol Aeroplane Company during the Second World War, which exempted him from conscription by way of reserved occupation protection. Following the war he married Pat Morgan in 1947, then went to Iraq in 1948 after his daughter was born to work at Baghdad University; this turned out to exist only on paper, so he worked instead maintaining the fleet of government vehicles.

He returned to the UK in 1950 and joined Jaguar in 1951. Some of his particular contributions were the introduction of slide rule and seven-figure log tables to work out formulae he invented for drawing curves, work which is now undertaken by complex Computer Aided Design software.

His son was born in 1953 and another daughter in 1956.

He was also a musician, playing piano, guitar and other instruments.