Weslake
[4][7] 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 win.
[6] 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,[9][6] consulting for companies such as Austin, MG, Citroën and Swallow Sidecars (later to become Jaguar).
[12][13] During World War II, Weslake worked with William Heynes, Walter Hassan and Claude Baily, on the design of the Jaguar XK engine.
[21] Weslake would also work as a consultant with Chrysler, developing a wedge head combustion chamber for their RB engine which was first fitted as Stage II in 1963.
[22] 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.
[23] From the start of the Vanwall Motor racing team, Weslake worked as a consultant, initially developing a new head for the Ferrari engines used.
[4][24] During 1956, Weslake worked with Leo Kuzmicki, Colin Chapman and Frank Costin to develop a new Vanwall car, which Stirling Moss drove to a win in a non championship F1 race, and convinced him to join the team in 1957.
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.
[29][30][31][32] Harry Weslake and his company provided the Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads for the engines that powered the Gulf-Wyer Ford GT40 Mk.I to two consecutive wins at Le Mans, in 1968 and 1969.
[33][34] In 1970, Harry Weslake agreed to develop a V12 engine for Ford and JWA, the operator of the John Wyer sports car team.
[35] 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's reluctance to let the Cosworth DFV be used in sports car 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 initial design was signed-off 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.
[36][37] 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.
[49][50] The marine and aero engine business is owned by AVVRON Ltd[51] Harry Weslake died in 1978 while attending the World Speedway Championship at Wembley.
[12][4] Harry Weslake was awarded the Segrave Medal in 1976 for developing the four-stroke speedway engine that Peter Collins won his World Championship on.
