Some people seem to be born with a natural gift for driving, and Norman Dewis is one of those people. He’s famous for being the chief test driver and development engineer for Jaguar between 1952 and 1985.

He was instrumental in the development of the XK140, XK150, the C- and D-Type, the E-Type, the XJ-S and many others not as well known. He raced too, participating in the 1955 Le Mans 24 hours race where he was forced to retire after 106 laps.

Although he retired in ’85, he’s still connected to the Jaguar brand even nowadays and is occasionally asked to come over for speeches. We totally get why he’s asked to keep coming because he’s one heck of a raconteur.

XCar sat down with him to get his story and the 38-minute video interview posted below is the result.

Video