Bentley
Wally's first job was as a 15 yr-old shop boy in W. O. Bentley's newly founded Bentley Motors, employee #14. He was a fitter in the engine shop then in the chassis shop gaining a complete experience of the 3 litre cars then in production.
He eventually moved to road testing working under the head of experimental department (Today's R&D) Frank Clement, the company's professional racing driver, and was a riding mechanic in some races. Off-season he was part of the Bentley Motors service department.
Establishing himself as the best Bentley mechanic he was allotted to Woolf Barnato, their top driver and Bentley Motors chairman and shareholder. They established a close and lasting friendship.
After it was put into liquidation and taken over by Rolls-Royce Limited at the end of 1931 Hassan left Bentley Motors and worked for Woolf Barnato. In 1933 he started to build a racing car, it would become known as Barnato Hassan, and was one of the fastest cars ever to lap Brooklands. Later he developed a car for Bill Pacey, named Pacey Hassan. It was a success on the British racing circuits in the 1936 season. By now he had become a family man and accordingly sought out more stable employment. He had married in 1933 and they were to have four children.
Read more about this topic: Walter Hassan
Famous quotes containing the word bentley:
“He followed in his father’s footsteps, but his gait was somewhat erratic.”
—Nicolas Bentley (1907–1978)
“Every living language, like the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration; some words go off, and become obsolete; others are taken in, and by degrees grow into common use; or the same word is inverted to a new sense or notion, which in tract of time makes an observable change in the air and features of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face.”
—Richard Bentley (1662–1742)