Motor racing is in the blood for Jeremy Welch.

His great grandfather built the first six-cylinder engine ever made in the UK (in 1906) and went on to build Brook Marine racing engines with notable success (world champion in 1921). Jeremy’s father founded Denis Welch Motorsport over 40 years ago and the company has had notable success in the UK, Europe, Australia and the Far East.

While building cars it became obvious that older models needed new components, as the originals were no longer available. The company supplies replacement performance parts for classic cars, restores and prepares ex-works cars, and specialises in Jaguar E-type and Austin Healey models.
Three Haas lathes, a UMC-750 five-axis universal machining centre and a VF-4SS super speed vertical machine have been added in the last few years.
“Having our manufacturing in-house has made a massive difference,” says Welch. “We’ve expanded our range considerably and can now control our own processes and quality.

“The training has been tremendous,” he continues. “I’d never written a program, but with Haas’ help I jumped straight on the five-axis machine. We do mainly 3+2 machining, which enables us to use fewer fixtures, and most programming is completed manually at the control using the Haas G254 dynamic work offset function. One of our operators had never used a CNC, but after training with Haas he now writes programs on our Haas ST-25Y lathe using Y axis and live tooling.”

The latest acquisition is a Haas ST40 turning centre, which is currently machining period magnesium wheels and uprights for race Jaguars.
“We bought the machine especially for this job and it’s been fantastic,” concludes Welch.

For further information www.haas.co.uk