With The Deepest Respect

W.O. BENTLEY'S PARENTS WERE BORN IN ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA. ONE OF THE DRIVERS OF HIS 1928 LE MANS WINNING BENTLEY CAME FROM MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA. THE OWNER/ DRIVER OF THE FIRST JAGUAR TO EVER FINISH AT LE MANS CAME FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA! ONE OF THE ENGINEERS ON THAT 1928 BENTLEY DESIGNED THE JAGUAR XK AND V12 ENGINES. ALSO ALL OF THOSE COVENTRY CLIMAX GRAND PRIX WINNING ENGINES CHANGED MOTOR RACING AND TOOK FOUR F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. HIS ENGINES WON ALL SEVEN OF JAGUAR'S LE MANS VICTORIES.WE RECOGNISE THEM AND SHINE A LIGHT ON THEIR BRILLIANCE.

- Les. Hughes

LEONARD HARRY 'NICK' HAINES REMAINS AN ENIGMA DESPITE having achieved more in his 58 years of life than most. What has he got to do with Jaguar? The answer if you read our initial expose on Nick five years ago, is that he owned and drove the first Jaguar to finish the Le Mans 24 Hour race. He died childless and relatively young in Palma on the Spanish island of Mallorca in 1969, having been happily married since 1947 to Marjorie.

Nick never met Bernard Rubin, and may not have even heard his name, but both were Australians who were successful on the French circuit in the Sarthe district. Rubin won the race in 1928 co-driving a Bentley with the legendary London-born South African diamond heir, Woolf Barnarto. He would win Le Mans three times in a row and even own the Bentley business!

Rubin was one of the original 'Bentley Boys' and his car prepared by a very young Wally Hassan. He is another intriguing link in this untold story.

Let's start though with the extremely unlikely beginnings of 'Nick' Haines in the tiny arid farming town of Swan Reach on the Murray River 130 kilometres east of Adelaide. It still has a population of just 300 inhabitants, and has to be reached from the highway by ferry.

He was born into a farming family in 1911, had two younger brothers and a sister and married in Adelaide in 1933 living what appears to be an unremarkable existence. Since we 'found' him we have remained intrigued, and continued to find out more about him and his life out of Australia.

Fortunately for us, Richard Hassan knew Nick when Richard worked for Jaguar, and filled in important lost personal information.