Keith Helfet is a distinguished automotive designer.

After demonstrating little academic promise in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Helfet turned to art. He had a natural affinity for automotive design and was accepted as a student into the most prestigious automotive styling programme in the world at the Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

 in London.

A native of South Africa, Helfet became the Chief Stylist at Jaguar (car)

Jaguar (car)

Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....

 where his work was admired by Sir William Lyons

William Lyons

Sir William Lyons , known as "Mr. Jaguar", was with fellow motorcycle enthusiast William Walmsley, the co-founder in 1922 of the Swallow Sidecar Company, which became Jaguar Cars Limited after the Second World War....

 who had shaped the character of design at the brand for decades.

Helfet designed the high performance Jaguars: XJ-220

Jaguar XJ220

The Jaguar XJ220 is a mid-engined supercar produced by Jaguar in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing as Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car , until the arrival of the McLaren F1 in 1994...

; XK-180 and the stillborn F-Type.

Helfet now runs his own design company, Helfet Design.