Weslake & Co also known as Weslake Research and Development was founded by Harry Weslake, described as England's greatest expert on cylinder head design, with premises in Rye, East Sussex, England. Weslake is most famous for its work with

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, Nort ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

and the Gulf-Wyer

Ford GT40 The Ford GT40 is a high-performance endurance racing car commissioned by the Ford Motor Company. It grew out of the "Ford GT" (for Grand Touring) project, an effort to compete in European long-distance sports car races, against Ferrari, which ...

Mk.I.

Early days

Harry Weslake was born in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

in 1897 to Henry John Weslake, a director of Willey and Co, gas engineers, whom he would join from school. At 16, he modified a Rudge Multi to race at local hill climbing events. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he joined the Royal Flying Corp, against the wishes of his employers Willey & Co, who wanted him to continue his apprenticeship. When he was demobbed in 1919, he had already received his first patent with his father in 1918 for a device to improve carburettors. However both his parents died shortly after, and with no link to Willey's, Weslake left and set up a workshop with 3 others in Exeter. The workshop marketed his Wex carburettor design, which was used in motorsport, with Weslake being a regular at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...

. It was after a discussion with J E Greenwood, chief engineer at Sunbeam Cycles competition team while at Brooklands, that Weslake developed an air flow meter to test gas flow in the combustion chamber. This work led to him working as a consultant to the Sunbeam team. Due to his growing reputation, Weslake was invited to work with W. O. Bentley to tune his racing engines cylinder heads, which resulted in the first

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...

win. It was the collapse of his company Wex Carburettors Ltd in 1926 that saw Weslake move to Automotive Engineering. In 1935, after a turbulent relationship with Automotive Engineering, he left to set up his own business based at the Alta racing car factory called Weslake & Taylor, consulting for companies such as

, MG,

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

and Swallow Sidecars (later to become

). It was at Swallows where he had been instrumental in modifying the side valve Standard engine to overhead valve used in the first SS sports car. He also worked on the larger SS engine, which Motorsport Magazine described as

World War II

Weslake was involved in the development of the

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was late ...

engine for both aircraft and tank usage."Harry Weslake", ''

Speedway Star Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks * Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cour ...

'', 9 September 1978, p. 25 During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Weslake worked with

William Heynes William Munger Heynes CBE (31 December 1903-July 1989), born in Leamington Spa, was an English automotive engineer. Heynes was educated at Warwick School from 1914 to 1921 before joining the Humber Car Company in Coventry in 1922 as a student ...

, Walter Hassan and Claude Baily, on the design of the

Jaguar XK engine The Jaguar XK is an inline 6-cylinder dual overhead camshaft (DOHC) engine produced by Jaguar Cars between 1949 and 1992. Introduced as a 3.4-litre, it earned fame on both the road and track, being produced in five displacements between 2 ...

. In addition he worked as a consultant on the

Jowett Javelin The Jowett Javelin was an executive car produced from 1947 to 1953 by Jowett Cars Ltd of Idle, near Bradford in England. The model went through five variants coded PA to PE, each having a standard and "de luxe" option. The car was designed by G ...

flat four engine, and for

Karrier Karrier was a British marque of motorised municipal appliances and light commercial vehicles and trolley buses manufactured at Karrier Works, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Clayton and Co., Huddersfield, Limited. They began making Karrier moto ...

and Scammell trucks.

Weslake Research and Development

In the 1940s, Weslake set up his research company in Rye, and was contracted by Norton to work on improving gas flow on their Manx engine. He also designed the cylinder head for the overhead valve version of the BMC A-series engine that was used in the

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in ...

, the

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

, the BMC ADO16, the

Austin Allegro The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1973 until 1982. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. The Al ...

and the

Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Morris product line, which ...

and received royalties on each of these engines manufactured. He was also used as a consultant on the BMC B-series engine &

BMC C-Series engine The BMC C-Series is a straight-6 automobile engine produced from 1954 to 1971. Unlike the Austin-designed A-Series and B-Series engines, it came from the Morris Engines drawing office in Coventry and therefore differed significantly in its ...

. Weslake acted as consultant to

Facel Vega Facel S.A. was a French manufacturer of pressed steel automobile components, later complete automobiles of their own design. To intensify its World War II war effort, French subcontracting company for military aeronautics Bronzavia created a s ...

for the development of its new 4 cylinder engine to be used in its new Facellia model. The

Rover Company The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company that operated from its base in Solihull in Warwickshire. Its lasting reputation for quality and performance was such that its first postwar model reviewed by ''Road & Track'' in ...

employed Weslake to develop a new head for its 3-litre engine, the final development which was used in the Rover P4 110 and the

Rover P5 The Rover P5 series are large saloon and coupé automobiles that were produced by Rover from 1958 until 1973. The models were marketed under the names Rover 3 Litre, Rover 3.5 Litre and Rover 3½ Litre. The P5 was a larger car than the P4 w ...

. Weslake would also work as a consultant with

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

, developing a wedge head combustion chamber for their RB engine which was first fitted as Stage II in 1963. In 1953, Weslake were given a patent for a unique layout of having valves provide a weak and rich mix to enable high compression ratios to be used without pre-ignition or pinking of the charge taking place. This was a precursor to Honda's CVCC engine which appeared in February 1971, five month's after the Weslake patent expired.

Start of F1 involvement

From the start of the Vanwall Motor racing team, Weslake worked as a consultant, initially developing a new head for the

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

engines used. During 1956, Weslake worked with Leo Kuzmicki,

Colin Chapman Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars. In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman ...

and Frank Costin to develop a new Vanwall car, which

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of com ...

drove to a win in a non championship F1 race, and convinced him to join the team in 1957. The car would go onto win the first constructors championship title in 1958. Weslake would go on to work as a consultant for Coventry-Climax, by advising them on port design for their FPF engine that was used by

Cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

and Lotus Formula One teams.

Gurney Weslake

In 1966

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...

commissioned Weslake Engineering to build an Aubrey Woods designed 3.0-litre V12 Formula One engine for his

Eagle Mk1 The Eagle Mk1, commonly referred to as the Eagle T1G, was a Formula One racing car, designed by Len Terry for Dan Gurney's Anglo American Racers team. The Eagle, introduced for the start of the 1966 Formula One season, is often regarded as being ...

. The engine had initially been a design for BRM, but lost out to their own H16 design. Their efforts produced a V12 that was smooth and powerful. At Monza, an insight into the future of engine design was seen for the first time. The engine had four valves per cylinder at a narrow included angle (thirty degrees) that allowed a single cover to enclose both the close-spaced camshafts on each bank. The sixty-degree-vee layout had a larger bore than stroke (72.8 × 60 mm). Gurney won the

1967 Race of Champions The 2nd Race of Champions was a non-Championship motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 12 March 1967 at Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England. The race was run over two heats of 10 laps of the circuit, then a final of 40 laps, and was won o ...

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hos ...

, a non-championship event, and the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix with the Eagle-Weslake V12 engine. At Monza in 1966, was available. This increased to during the winter. At the 1967 Brands Hatch Race of Champions, Dan Gurney's engine gave and Richie Ginther's engine gave . On test, up to had been achieved. At Monaco, Gurney had , Ginther . Later in the 1967 season quotes of were made. (These are figures from '' Motoring News''.) The engines peaked at around 10,000 rpm. A figure of was mentioned at the start of 1968, but after money ran out, a test made at the B.R.M. factory recorded only 378 bhp (this may have been a 'tired' engine). Harry Weslake had an eventual goal of @ 12,000 rpm. Later Ford sponsored (75.0 × 56.25 mm) versions in 1972 were quoted at @ 10,500 rpm. Harry Weslake and his company provided the Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads for the engines that powered the Gulf-Wyer

Mk.I to two consecutive wins at Le Mans, in 1968 and 1969.

Ford Weslake V-12

In 1970, Harry Weslake agreed to develop a V12 engine for Ford and JWA, the operator of the John Wyer sports car team. The engine was devised after a meeting between Weslake, Ford's motorsport director Stuart Turner and GT40 designer Len Bailey at the British Grand Prix, and

Keith Duckworth David Keith Duckworth (10 August 1933 – 18 December 2005) was an English mechanical engineer. He is most famous for designing the Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine, an engine that revolutionised the sport of Formula One. Early life a ...

's reluctance to let the Cosworth DFV be used in sports car racing. Weslake and his stepson, Michael Daniel designed a 3-litre V12 with cylinder dimensions of 75 x 56.5mm in an aluminium-alloy block, which was designed to allow a bore increase up to 80mm, and was unusually strong to withstand the rigours of 24-hour racing. A cast magnesium sump added to its stiffness and was cross-bolted to the caps of the five main bearings, which were downsized relative to previous Weslake designs to reduce weight and friction. The engine first run on the 20 December 1971, recording a peak power of 450bhp, compared with 451bhp for a DFV on the same rig. The initial design was signed of for further development by Ford and JWA, however the relationship started to falter after Weslake's push to use the engine in F1, and poor tests in a modified Brabham BT39 and a Gulf-Mirage M6. Gordon Murray and Derek Bell said there was issues with the tests, and subsequent test at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and ...

showed the DFV and V12 powered Mirages were near identical. However, with Ford's racing budget being smashed after the

1973 Oil Crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...

, Weslake took JWA to court to try and reclaim the development costs, which JWA settled out of court. The undeveloped engine, which was finally tested independently at 461 bhp, was sold to Terry Hoyle for £10,000 to keep Weslake afloat.

Ford tuning work

During the 1970s, Weslake manufactured the Cologne RS2600 engine that Ford fitted to the

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has be ...

via a subsidiary Weslake Capri. This also included the special Weslake aluminium heads used for Ford's touring car challenge. The Weslake Ford Capri went on to finish 10th and 11th at the 1972 24 hours of Le Mans, and the 1971 and 1972 driver titles in the European Touring Car Championship.

Jeff Uren Jeffery Macandrew-Uren (17 October 1925 – 6 April 2007), was a British engineer, racing driver, race team manager, tuner, customiser, and entrepreneur. He won the British Saloon Car Championship in its sophomore year. He was a driver and te ...

's Race Proved linked up with Weslake who provided the Ford Essex V6 tuned engines. The customers had various tuning choices; the standard Ford Capri-spec 3.0 L engine with 138 bhp and 182 ft-lbs of torque, the 170, 180, 190 and the mighty 218 bhp Tecalemit fuel-injected version, which in a 1972 Motorsport Magazine article about the Race Proved

Cortina Savage The Cortina Savage is a custom performance automobile based on the Ford Cortina. The car was designed and produced by Jeff Uren and his companies, Race Proved Performance and Racing Equipment Ltd., and Jeff Uren Ltd. Production of the conversi ...

was timed as fast to 0-60 mph as a

Jaguar E-Type The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the m ...

V12.

Motorcycle engines

Weslake Engineering went on to design a series of successful motorcycle engines during the 1970s were also used in early shifter

karts Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ful ...

. The Weslake parallel twin was used in Sidecar racing and was fitted to several motorcycle frames including Seeley. Peter Collins of

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier League championship 13 times. They currently compete in the SGB Premiership, racing at The National Speedway Stadium, wi ...

and England won the 1976 Speedway World Final on a Weslake engined bike. Harry Weslake's last project was for

Lord Hesketh Baron Hesketh, of Hesketh in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet, who had previously briefly represented Enfield in the House of Co ...

, developing a 992cc air cooled vee-twin for the

Hesketh V1000 The Hesketh V1000 is a OHC V-twin motorcycle with 4 valves per cylinder. It was originally designed and built by Hesketh Motorcycles in Daventry, Northamptonshire. Sales proved disappointing as the motorcycle was expensive and, at 86 bhp, i ...

. The Weslake eight-valve head for twins was sold to Nourish Racing Heads who continue to manufacturethe design.

Aero engines

In the 1970s, Weslake Aeromarine was set up after a request for assistance from the UK

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

. The company developed a variety of two stroke and four stroke engines: * Weslake Type 060 * Weslake Type 116 * Weslake Type 200 * Weslake Type 274 * Weslake Type 342 * Weslake Type 430 * Weslake Type 548 * Weslake Type 860 * Weslake Type 1527 The company was purchased, along with the engine designs by Normalair-Garrett in 1979. In 1980, Westlake & Co restarted Aero engine work developing the following engines: * Weslake W50 * Weslake W40/50-73-02 * Weslake W42/55 * Weslake W65/75-118-02 * Weslake CF 122/E The rights to the Aero engines were sold in 1984 to Emdair.

Powerboat engines

During the 1960s, Weslake were used as consultants to improve turbo-charged diesel engines for powerboat racing.

Later developments

Since Harry Weslake's death, the company have worked on a variety of engines under Michael Daniels, Harry Weslake's stepson, including the Diesel Air Dair 100, Weslake A80 and the Excelsior-Henderson X-Twin. Bruce Penhall rode a Weslake speedway motorcycle to many successes in the early 1980s, including two World Individual Speedway Championships. The company was split up, with Weslake Capri owned by Capri specialist Ric Wood Motorsport since 2012. The marine and aero engine business is owned by AVVRON Ltd

Harry Weslake's Death

Harry Weslake died in 1978 while attending the World Speedway Championship at Wembley.

Honours

Harry Weslake was awarded the Segrave Medal in 1976 for developing the four-stroke speedway engine that Peter Wheeler won his World Championship on. The Goodwood Revival Festival has since 2017 named it's trophy for Spridget racing The Weslake Cup, in honour of Harry Weslake, and his work on the A-series engine.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official websiteGurney Weslake official homepage
Formula One engine manufacturers Companies based in East Sussex Engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom