Harry Mundy – Kenilworth

Born on 15 January 1916 in Coventry, educated at King Henry VIII School and served his apprenticeship with Alvis, but then left to join various other companies ERA, Morris, BRM and Coventry Climax before being asked to join Jaguar by an old friend Walter ‘Wally’ Hassan whom he had previously worked with at Coventry Climax.
Walter had previously worked briefly at Jaguar in 1938 until the outbreak of war in September 1938, returning to Jaguar again just a year later helping design the XK engine as used in the XK120 until 1948 when he then moved to Coventry Climax.

While working at Coventry Climax after WW2, both Walter and Harry Mundy helped design a lightweight small single overhead camshaft engine for use with portable fire pumps for the government.
A version of this engine was eventually used in the Hillman Imp and the Lotus F1 car as well as the Le Mans 24hr winning Lotus Eleven in 1959.
He also had a hand in developing the engine fitted to the Mk1 Lotus Cortina based on an engine he had been working on for Facel S.A, a French car manufacturer for their Facellia model.
Jaguar purchased the Coventry Climax Company in 1963 and Harry and Walter both moved over to Jaguar where they had been working on a V12 engine but using the XK Cylinder Heads making it too big and heavy.
Harry and Walter then set about producing a lighter version which was to fit inside the XJ6 engine compartment. This engine was 5.3 litres and produced 272bhp after years of testing it was first fitted in a series 3 E-Type and shown to the public in 1971.
Harry didn’t believe that this engine could be used as a race engine, but Ralph Broad of Broadspeed in Southam proved him wrong and managed to produce 420 bhp.

Harry Mundy eventually retired in 1980 after overseeing the development of the high-efficiency V12 engine fitted into the 1981 XJ-HSE and remained as a consultant.

Harry Mundy and Walter Hassan as they introduce the all new 5.3 litre Jaguar V12 engine.

Harry Mundy died on 5^th April 1988 at his home in Kenilworth aged 72.