Mike Kimberley

HE METES OUT his words carefully, as befits a man who was on first-name terms with the greats of the post-war motor industry. Mike Kimberley is a font of anecdotes, some of which are interspersed with requests to speak off the record. Even then, he is at pains to frame each statement. Effortlessly friendly, quick to heap praise where it’s due, and clearly not one to dwell on the negatives, he is a born diplomat. It is little wonder that his time at the sharp end didn’t finish when he reached retirement age.

While he may be celebrated as a Lotus man, Kimberley earned his spurs at Jaguar. ‘As a boy, I was moved to a village on the border of Wales and Herefordshire after The Blitz nearly destroyed our house,’ he recalls. ‘I spent my early school years in Appleby Magna while living with my grandma, before moving back to Allesley, Coventry, when I was eight years old. We, as a family, lived in 312 Browns Lane, so we were very close to the Jaguar factory. I used to be fascinated, watching cars