JOHN HAROLD HAYNES OBE, the man behind the Haynes Manual, has passed away at age 80 following a short illness.
Not only did he create a legendary line of workshop manuals, but Haynes also founded the Haynes Publishing Group PLC as well as the Haynes International Motor Museum.
Born on 25 March 1938, Haynes’ passion for motoring began young. Following a childhood in Sri Lanka, at age 12 Haynes was sent to a UK boarding school, where instead of playing rugby with his classmates, he took to converting an Austin 7 into a “lightweight sporty Austin 7 special”.
After selling the car, he decided to write a booklet explaining the conversion, and the first print run of 250 copies reportedly sold out in just ten days.
JH Haynes OBE
25 March 1938 – 8 February 2019Read the full obituary here: https://t.co/TdivB6deXh pic.twitter.com/HfmdS4fI7E
— Haynes Manuals (@HaynesManuals) 11 February 2019
A few years later, while enrolled in the RAF for his national service, Haynes was enlisted to help a friend repair his Austin Healey Sprite. After buying a camera, he photographed breaking down and rebuilding the engine, before creating exploded diagrams and publishing the very first Haynes Manual for the Sprite in 1966.
To date, more than 200 million Haynes Manuals covering cars, bikes and a host of other machines have been sold around the world.
Here at Visordown, we’re a massive fan of the manuals, and can be regularly found pouring through the grease covered pages as we attempt to fix our own machines. So here’s to John, the man who turned many a motoring fan into a somewhat successful amateur mechanic…
