Marque loyalty is an old-fashioned concept these days. A driver will swap seats after a season or two, a designer will change teams, an engineer or technician will quietly ask around to tease out available opportunities. Everyone’s looking to maximise their career potential, and more power to them. It’s the same in today’s global motor industry: a familiar face from Ford will pop up at BMW, a rising star will exchange Turin for Detroit.

But back when a few at least of the great car makers were still private businesses with paternalistic proprietors, some famous companies enjoyed a true family feeling among their key employees. This shared unity of purpose translated into the firm’s products, helping a strong identity to run through each successive model.

There’s no better example of this than Jaguar. Founded, and run with an iron hand, by Bill Lyons, it enjoyed its greatest days in the 1950s under a tight team of loyal servants: engineering boss Bill Heynes, racing manager Lofty England, vehicle engineer Bob Knight, aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer and development test driver Norman Dewis. All of those names spent the majority of their working life with Jaguar. Norman’s own service adds up not only to 33 years but also to more than a quarter of a million miles at over 100mph, perhaps further at those speeds than any other man. The road behaviour and fitness for purpose of all the great Jaguars is very much down to the relentless work put in, often seven days a week day and night, by Norman.