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cazzyf1 · 20 days ago

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My favourite quotes from the book 'Mon Ami Mate'

This took me a few months to read this book and I wrote down a lot of quotes so be prepared for a long read - but definitely worth it to learn more about Mike Hawthorn & Peter Collins

"Two years later, the World War Two fighter airfield at Westhampnett became Goodwood racing circuit and, as it was just a few miles south of the Farnham area, the Members (Mike's friend group) soon found their way there. 'Mike would never pay to get in' says McNab, 'He would climb over the fence, scrounge a couple of tickets and then pass them through, so we all got in for free'" - p8

"Nick Harrison remembers a dinner party for ten or a dozen people at The Sally Lunn restaurant in Bagshot when Mike left the table at the end of the evening, climbed out of the toilet window and went home, rather than pay his share of the bill. 'That was typical of him' says Nick, 'Not because he was mean, but because loved to get away with it - it was a sort of challenge for him'" - p8

"Mike and McNab once counted twenty-four pints of light ale disappearing down the Hawthorn gullet during the course of an evening" - p8

"We became great friends, but if he didn't like you he would tread on you and I know people who felt that he was a most unpleasant young man. There was a very dark side to Mike and although he was tremendously popular I would say that twenty per-cent of the people who came into contact with him couldn't stand him" - p9

"Mike found Merridale (his house) a very lonely place, so the McNabs (best friends family) took him under their wing and he stayed with them for some six months. Although clearly upset by his parents separation, Mike never discussed it - even with Neil, whose bedroom he shared. He loved both his parents dearly and refused to allow their break up to alter his feelings towards either" - p9

"Here Peter went underwater swimming, or snorkeling, then a new sport rapidly becoming popular. He hired flippers, helmet and spear-gun and caught many good size fish, which he sold to pay for more swimming lessons" - p18

"He could be a very serious young man, especially where his cars were concerned. He was dedicated to them and if I wasn't out with him some nights he'd go to Ron and Mary's house and talk with them for hours. They were his closest friends and I don't remember Peter ever having a particular man friend at all" - p21

"On the home front, Peter adored his mother and had established good fraternal relations with his sister Trisha (now nine), who naturally hero-worshipped her dashing brother, the racing driver. There was a certain distance, however, between father and son, who were occasionally not on speaking terms" - p21

"Throughout 1951 Mike had raced the Rileys dressed in his everyday clothes, which included a tie. However, if the weather was warm and he wasn't wearing a pullover the tie would flap about in his face, which could be very disconcerting, so he began wearing one of his bow ties for racing" - p33/34

"He was driving into an Italian village at a fair clip when he and co-driver Chips Chipperton spotted a large sign saying 'Adagio', which means 'slowly'. 'Isn't that where the dancing girls come from?' Asked Mike, without lifting his foot, and promptly crashed into a stone bridge" - p39/40

"Mike went to Val d`Isere, in Switzerland, for a skiing holiday with fellow-member Mike Currie. It was not a great success, as first of all Mike got involved in a serious party after a smallpox inoculation, which combined with his alchol intake to lay him out for four or five days. When he was able to stand up again he tried skiing for the first time, only to fall down constantly. He quickly decided that various parts of the lanky Hawthorn frame were liable to snap in this dangerous endeavour and made for the comparative safety of the bar." - p44

"Having learned that his days with a green Ferrari were over he decided to add a dark green, zip-front jacket, or wind cheater, to his racing uniform. "If I can't drive a green car," he told Neil McNab, "at least I can wear a green jacket!" - p47

"The young British driver stood for the British National Anthem with tears of emotion running down his cheeks while the crowd audibly gasped with amazement when he took off his helmet and they saw his obvious youth, after a drive in which he matched every champion on the circuit with courage, speed and racecraft." - p50

"Mike spent the festivities in London with his friends, Pat and Jill Hume-Kendall, who were now the proud parents of a four month old baby boy named Simon. On Christmas morning Pat and Mike took Simon (Mike's godson) to the pub, leaving Jill to prepare lunch. "On their way home, Mike decided to demonstrate a four-wheel drift with the pram and tipped my beautiful baby onto the pavement, scraping his little head" recalls Jill, with a shudder. "I was absolutely furious, of course, and it completely ruined our Christmas lunch"." - p59

"'The night before the rally I went to bed' says Adams 'But Peter was out on the town, chasing girls' (He would chat up the maids at every hotel we went to)" - p75

"Early in 1953 Peter went to live in Paris. 'He went there to escape National Service' says John Wyer. 'There was no argument about that. He talked about it quiet openly later and at dinner one night we had a long argument with Pat Griffith, who had already done his stint. George Abecassis was there too, and he said he had throughly enjoyed his time in the RAF, in spite of spending part of it as a prisoner of war. Peter thought the whole thing was a complete waste of time and asked Pat, 'What good did it ever do you?'" - p81

"Peter also learned to speak French fluently by engaging in intercourse - social and otherwise - with countless pretty Parisiennes!" - p81

"Peter acquired an Alsatian at some stage and if he intended it to be a guard dog it appeared to be an utter failure, welcoming anyone who came to the door with its wagging tail and slobbering chops. Then one day it mistakenly proved it's worth. Peter went out, leaving a plumber and an electrician to do a couple of jobs in the flat. Many hours later he returned, to find them still there and extremely agitated. The Alsatian, which had let them in without a murmur, had refused to let them out once they had finished their work." - p82

"As soon as we arrived Jean Lucas told Mike that someone had called him from England two or three times and left a number. It was the man from Reuters Press Agency and when Mike phoned he asked if he was going to England to see his father. Mike said, 'No. I am going to Le Mans. Why should I go to England?' Then the Reuters man told him that his father had crashed and was badly hurt. Naturally, Mike was in a terrible state, but I took him to Orly and the journalist Bernard Cahier managed to get him a seat on the last plane for London. While we were waiting Mike called the garage at Farnham and was told that his father was dead." - 87

"Romolo Tavoni was present in Ferrari's office one day when he (enzo) was discussing a recent race with Mike. 'Why did you have difficulty in that race?' Asked Ferrari, "My people tell me the car was fine.' 'The gearbox was no good,' said Mike, 'It was impossible for me to change gear properly'. Ferrari (who's cars were always 'fine') flew into a rage. 'You say my gearbox is no good? My gearbox is the best and if you say it is no good a second time, you can leave!' 'Goodbye!' Said Mike, and walked out. Ferrari quickly called him back and all was forgiven. He liked people to stand up for themselves." - p103

'Another who remembers his strong, anti-German feeling is Moi Kenward, one of his few, really serious girlfriends. 'We were upstairs at the 1955 Earls Court Motor Show when someone told Mike that Sir Jeremy Boles was buying a gullwing Mercedes.' She recalled. "He's not buying a fucking German car! Come on - let's get down there" He said, he grabbed me and we hurtled downstairs and there was Sir Jeremy writing out his cheque. Mike stormed onto the stand and said, "what the hell are you buying a bloody Kraut car for? Why don't you buy a Jaguar from me, you silly bastard?" - p103

"For several years, Mike had been troubled by severe pain in his kidneys, which frequently left him feeling very low indeed. He told one or two close friends that when he went to the toilet it was 'like peeing grit' and that often, having started, he couldn't finish the job. The resulting 'off days' did not go un-noticed in the racing world, but Mike kept very quiet about the reason behind them." - p104

"The treatment involved the insertion of a small tube into the abdomen and the restoration of the balance of the fluids going through his kidneys. Visitors such as Bill Cotton and Moi Kenward remember that Mike was "full of tubes" afterwards, and, as Moi recalls, painful though his condition was, he could still see the funny side of it. 'He had a tube up his old man, draining into a bottle, and he told me it was very painful "because every time you walk into the room I get an erection. It's agony!" 'One evening I was asked to wait outside for a few minutes while the doctors examined him. They cane out roaring with laughter and Mike said, "I told them what the problem was and they're going to take it out tomorrow." - p104

"Mike was never short of visitors and Moi was one of the most frequent. 'I had long hair in those days and Mike would spend hours brushing it while I sat beside his bed. That was the very gentle side of him few people saw.' Others went not to have their hair brushed, but to have their whistles whetted, although not when Mike's mother was present. Malcolm Richardson and some friends turned up one day and when Mrs H discovered that their raincoat pockets were crammed with bottles of beer she threw them all out." - p104

"The first thing I saw Mike Hawthorn running around, white-faced and absolutely distracted. He was alone, running through the caravans behind the pits. Just running around. He must have just got out of his car" - p127

"As this was sinking in, a Jaguar mechanic appeared and asked Lance to go to the Jaguar pits and talk to Mike 'he's having hysterics and says it's all his fault...he says He's never going to race again' Macklin refused 'because he bloody nearly killed me too, and, I'm not feeling all that happy towards him'. A few minutes later, Mike appeared 'He was tottering. He stood behind me at the table, put his arms on my shoulder and said, 'Oh my God, Lance. I'm terribly sorry. I bloody near killed you and I killed all those people. I'm really sorry. I'm certainly never going to race again.' My anger evaporated, Macklin recalled" - p127

'Rob's memory of Mike's arrival is still vivid. "His first words - and I'll never forget them - were, 'it's all my fault! It was all my fault! I wanted to get into the pits before Fangio came by"' - p127

'Mike returned to England and appeared on the BBC-TV to talk about the disaster with Rudolf Uhlenhaut of Daimler-Benz. The telecast was an unhappy experience for Mike, as Moi Kenward recalls. "He had to face the music. He came round to my flat afterwards and he really was in a terrible state - he was in floods of tears"' - p131

'The weather was fantastic for Aintree, sunny and extremely hot, and I began to feel the effects, so In handed the car over to Castellotti.' wrote Mike later. This is certainly true, but as is often the case with Mike's books, it is not the whole truth, which was that Mike was suffering from a giant hangover! The previous evening he had had a blazing row with Moi Kenward, after which he became drunk as a skunk, leaving him in no state to do any serious motor racing the next day. The row continued after the race, with the result that a furious Moi went out to dinner that evening with Eugenio Castellotti. This did nothing to ease a very jealous Mike's hangover.' - p132

'Recollections of what followed are obscured by a heavy, alcoholic haze, but at some point in the proceedings, Peter Collins, Roy Salvadori and Pat Griffith were seen rolling Rob Walker down 46th Street in a large, wire litter basket' - p138

'About an hour out of Paris we were stopped by a very nice gendarme, who asked us to please drive slowly through his village. Peter pretended he couldn't speak French and the guy was very polite and let us go, but as we drove away, Peter said' "Tous les flics mangent le merde!" (All cops eat shit) when we got to the next village I thought we were going right into clink! Our nice gendarme had obviously phoned ahead and his pals were waiting for us. Peter thought it was a hellava lot of fun - until they hit us for abour fifty bucks. He was a bit subdued for a while after that'- p139

'We(Pat Griffith & Peter Collins) slid off the road and down the mountainside for about fifty feet and I ended up in Peter's lap. "Pat" he said, "I never knew you cared!"' - p140

"Ol' Pete had a very genteel streak in him and would go out of his way to be friends with the new members of the team" - p141

"John Wyer had given us strict instructions not to dice with each other and whatever order we were in at the end of the first lap was to be maintained. I made a better start than Pete, but within a couple of laps he was right with me and we had a most God-almighty dice. All round the circuit we were passing and repassing, pushing each other through the corners and having a wonderful time. Peter was laughing and waving at me, (giving me two fingers, that is!) and we were really going terribly quickly but we always got our positions right as we went past the pits, with me in the lead.Then I lost it coming out of Arnage. I spun right round, Peter went past and from then on he had every right to stay in front. He could have told John that I had spun and said, 'What was I supposed to do wait for him?' But that's exactly what he did he gave me two fingers and let me go by again. He never mentioned it to John and neither did I, because that was exactly the kind of thing he was trying to avoid my spin could have involved Pete and we could have lost both cars. That was how nice a guy he was." - p152

"Peter took his Governorship very seriously and visited us several times that year. He liked to wander round the classrooms, chat to the kids and look at their work. They were all between the ages of five and thirteen, so although they knew he was famous they didn't really know much about him, but he was so charming and interested in what they were doing that they really warmed to him and looked forward to his visits. And he so obviously enjoyed coming down and being associated with something so different from his normal life. Unfortunately for us, he joined Ferrari in 1956 and from then in we saw very little of him, as he was seldom in this country, but he remained a great of friend of the school and myself. I often sought his advice, as he was a well-travelled young man and very intelligent, helpful and loyal." - p153

"Being a great party man and a wow with the ladies, Peter could very easily have made Brooks feel uncomfortable. Instead, he took a rather surprising attitude towards him. In those days we always had a small party the night before a race and when, on the evening before the Nine Hours, Tony said he was going to have an early night, much to everyone's surprise Peter said, 'Right - my man Brooks is going to bed and so am I.' He sunk his last half pint and off he went. That sort of thing happened on more than one occasion" - p155

"He was utterly charming and when I told him that I had to get back to work he said, 'Come back tomorrow, it won't be so busy then.' So I did and despite our age difference and the fact that he was a famous racing driver and I was a trainee salesman we struck up a good - friendship. That year many races were cancelled after Le Mans, so he was often at home and we used to meet frequently, until at the end of the year I had to go off and do my National Service. On my last night at The Black Boy (a pub) he bought me one hundred Players cigarettes and said, 'Keep in touch and come and see me at the meetings when you can get away.' Luckily, I was able to get to quite a few in the next two years and whenever he was there he would invite me into his crowd saying, 'This is my young mate, Trevor, from Kidderminster. He's in the RAF, poor bastard!' Peter never changed" - p161

"Although there was a nine-year age difference, Peter and I were always very close. He was a really terrific older brother and such a happy person, always laughing and joking. Needless to say, I hero-worshipped him and, with Mummy and Daddy, took a great interest in his career which seemed to dominate our conversations at every meal. He still didn't get on with Daddy and Wherever he came home I would say, 'How long are you here for?' and he'd say, 'It depends on the old man.' Ifthings went wrong Peter would high-tail it back to London and stay with Vick Vickers at the Washington Hotel." P161-162

"I remember once when Stirling stayed the night he left his shoes outside his bedroom door to be cleaned! My schoolfriend Sue Pridmore was staying with me and we were so incensed we filled them with sand" - Peter's sister, p162

"I was an unwilling boarder at Malvern Girls College. It was a very strict school and we were not allowed out-even with family - unless prior permission had been granted. This didn't bother Peter, who arrived one day with Stirling, sweeping to a halt in front of the school with a great swirl and flourish of loose chippings on the drive. When I told my housemistress that my brother and Stirling Moss had come to take me home for lunch she immediately phoned my parents, not knowing Peter or Stirling from Adam. "Is this young man your son?" she demanded. 'And circle who is this Stirling Moss person? Are we to release your daughter in their care?" "Mummy managed to convince her that Peter was indeed my brother and as we left he took my school hat inter off my head and in front of this very self-important pudding, plonked it on his own. Her face as we walked out.......As soon as we had gone she called my mother Berm again and said, 'I don't want those two young men to bring your daughter back, I don't like the way they behave at all." - p162

"Mike and Duncan soon found ways of keeping themselves amused.

One day they were in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when a member of a visiting ladies convention saw a man in a blazer and decided that he must be an attendant. "Boy! Where's our convention?" she demanded.

The 'boy' was Mike, and he was naturally unable to answer her question, whereupon the lady was very rude to him. Instead of telling her 'where to go', Mike told her where to go. "Try the eleventh floor, M'am" he said politely.

It then dawned upon the Englishmen that they had a good thing going here and in the following fifteen minutes they directed numerous ladies to the eleventh floor before taking the lift there themselves for a look- see. To their huge delight they found that things were going magnificently awry, for their ladies had walked into the middle of an all-male convention. Not all the ladies were there to attend the same ladies' convention, so the confusion was total. After a gleeful appraisal of their handiwork, Mike and Duncan walked innocently away." - p164

"Watching the race from above the BRM pits was his old schoolfriend, Bill Cotton who saw - and heard - Mike's reaction. "He threw his crash-hat across the pit and said, 'If I want to commit suicide I'll do it without your help, thank you very much indeed!' He then stormed out and went straight to the beer tent in the Paddock, where I joined him. 'That whole fucking car is an absolute time bomb!' He told me. He was livid!"" - p171

"The tyre problem clearly played on Peter's mind, as Ken Gregory remembers - "Peter and I shared a room at the Palace Hotel in Milan and two or three times during the night before the race I was woken up by his voice crying out 'The tyres! The tyres!!' As he thrashed unhappily through a nightmare. Just what mental torture he was going through at the time, I don't know, neither could he remember in the morning but, like the test of the Ferrari drivers, he was obviously terribly worried about tyre position'" - p194

'At the end of the 34th lap there occurred the most stirring things in this most exciting of races for many, many years. Peter Collins, lying in third place, came into the pits for a tyre inspection, and voluntarily handed over his car to Fangio - thereby giving up any possible chance he might have had of winning the World Championship. It was a truly generous action, and one which gives the lie to the cut-throat tactics which one or two people have alleged against motor racing.' - p195

'Despite this, Juan Manuel Fangio won the World Championship for the fourth time, thanks to the generosity of Peter Collins. "I was astonished when he handed over the car," he said afterwards, "but I did not stop to argue. In fact, Peter pushed me into it, although he still had a great chance to win the Championship himself at the time. I know how much that renunciation meant to him. This is one of the things that make a friendship really great. I do not know whether in his place I would have done the same. Collins was the gentleman driver.' - p195

'"It's too early for me to become World Champion - I'm too young." Was the 25 year old's reply, "I want to to on enjoying life and racing, but if I become World Champion now I would have all the obligations that come with it. And Fangio deserves it anyway!" - p195

'He told me, "If I'm good enough I'm automatically going to be number one, so I want to learn to be good enough," which I thought was a beautiful attitude," - p195

"Peter just loved to race," says Ken Gregory, "He did it for the sheer enjoyment it brought him. I don't think he was too concerned with money because he wasn't a big spender - he was very casual with it, really and didn't need an awful lot. He was a very popular character and was always being invited here, there and everywhere. He wasn't extravagant, he wasn't flash with cars - he had a Ford Zephyr and then I arranged for him to have one of the new Sunbeam Rapiers - and he didn't have a palatial residence anywhere. Money was not high on his list of priorities," - p197

'Peter....interestingly, he was certainly the most friendly of the three and probably the best personality, there was an absolute warmth just emanating from him. At the same time he was absolutely impossible where appointments were concerned. If you made a commitment for him you had your heart in your mouth, not knowing whether he would turn up - and frequently he didn't. On the other hand, he also had the ability to smooth ruffled feathers immediately with his charm, which was overwhelming.' - p198

"I was in the foyer, talking with Peter, who had just come back from Modena." Recalls Sir David, "Mike Hawthorn appeared with a beautiful girl on his arm and Peter rushed up to him and said, 'Mike - you must get on a plane and go to Modena. Ferrari wants another driver and you can be the captain of the team." Quite why Peter should offer Mike the 'captiancy' when he had already been given the position is hard to fathom. Nonetheless, Mike was on the phone to Modena the next day and on the following Monday he flew to Italt to talk with Enzo Ferrari. That brief conversation in the foyer of the Leicester Square Theater proved to be the starting point for the great friendship that grew up between Mike and Peter, a friendship that was soon to be adorned with the phrase, 'Mon Ami Mate." - p198

"It was while making his way there with Umberto Maglioli that he heard of his father's fatal car crash. Two days later, Basil Cardew ran a front-page story in The Daily Express revealing how - just hours before the crash - Leslie Hawthorn had spoken to him in the Goodwood Paddock and blamed himself for all of Mike's National Service troubles. "Will you help me about Mike?" He asked Cardew. "The boy is miserable and we have got to settle this call up trouble. Will you write an article in The Daily Express and let people know the whole story?" "Blame me for the mess," he went on, "I advised Mike all along from the time he was sixteen. The boy was always keen to do his National Service, but I have spent my life in racing - motorcycles in the TT and sports car races - and I thought his future lay in that direction, rather than driving lorries for the Army." - p203

"He used to come and stay with my family at Biella frequently," adds Maglioli, "He didn't go home to England because he didn't want to have to give up racing for two years and join the Army. He didn't like living on his own in Modena, so he came to us," - p204

"Mike put up with Italy because he had to in order to avoid the call up, but he badly missed his parents, the Members and the pubs. On his rare visits home he would make a bee-line for the Duke of Cambridge. "There's nothing like the green grass of England!" He would exclaim to Charlie and Marjorie Bishop as he supped his first of many pints for months, and for which he seldom, if ever, paid." - p204

"Peter's lifestyle and attitudes were somewhere in between those of Moss and Hawthorn. He loved parties and girls but was no great drinker, preferring wine with a meal (like moss) rather than downing great quantities of beer in a pub (like hawthorn)" - p211

"Mike was never his teammate (fangio) and they had no common language, so their friendship was very much at arms length, but the Englishman clearly thought the world of him and they enjoyed some unforgettable duels. Peter, on the other hand, had established a very strong rapport with him during their season together at Ferrari in 1956. By that time Fangio had a smattering of French (which Peter spoke fluently) and Peter was quick to learn some Spanish, so a genuine friendship grew up between them, one that was set in stone by the younger man's selfless behaviour in the Italian GP. And, along with everyone else, Juan Manuel came under the Collins spell and held him isn the same sort of paternal esteem as did Enzo Ferrari," - p216

"Stirling Moss had been writing for us (writing car reviews for the Sunday express) and when he left it was Harold Keeble, the Editor, who suggested that Mike should take his place. Mike agreed, with one stipulation - he had to have a slap-up meal with every test. I think his fee was £20 a week - a pittance! We used to pick up the test car at the Express building in Fleet Street and drive to Silverstone, occasionally putting in the report how long it took us to get there - fifty-seven minutes or thereabouts in a quick motor. Often we'd stop for lunch first, usually at The Bell at Aston Clinton, which was a very fine place to eat. We always started with oysters, caviar or snails (Mike was passionately fond of snails - the car used to reek of garlic afterwards), and we always had a bottle of Clos de Vougeot, a very fine wine. After lunch we'd go to Silverstone and belt the car round and then, as often as not we would sit and watch the Circuit Manager, Jimmy Brown, do a few laps in it. In the spring, Geoff Duke would often be there testing his motorbike and sometimes Mike would have a go. He would go crazy about motorbikes and would belt round with no leathers or helmet - no protection at all! In the summer, when we got bored with Silverstone we'd go to the seaside - always somewhere with a Big Dipper. Mike loved Big Dippers. He never knew what was in his Road Tests until he read the article, and next time we'd meet he'd say, 'That was a bloody silly thing I wrote last week, wasn't it?'" - p222

"Mike Hawthorn accompanied his great friend's beautiful, grieving widow back to England. At London Airport he bravely faced the Press and TV cameras and gave his eye-witness account of the crash, the tears running down his face, as The Daily Mail recorded.

"There was a little dip." he said, "We went into that. There was a sharp, short right-hand bend and Peter took it a little too wide and didn't turn into it soon enough. His car hit the bank and turned over. I don't know how fast he was driving. There was just a bunch of us. Tony Brooks was in front. Peter was second. As a driver he was the best, definitely. As a friend....he was my best friend, and that is it."

The Daily Express quoted him as saying, 'Pete and I raced as a team..... We were both chasing Tony Brooks, the eventual winner, and that was fair enough. The idea was to catch Tony and try to blow him up. But we were not racing against each other. I was just waiting behind Pete as he touched the bank."

'Hawthorn could hardly speak. He was asked, "Will you race again?" "If Ferrari wants me to I will. I am due to race in the Portuguese GP in two weeks, but personally I am not very interested." 'Massive, fair-haired Hawthorn crammed a handkerchief against his mouth. "Damn silly of me." he said, "So sorry...."

'He walked blindly along the corridor, took Louise Collins by the hand and drove away.'" - p227-228

Mike described the first part of the trip briefly in Challenge Me The Race:

We landed at Toussus le Noble, got a taxi into Paris, which cost about £3, and stayed the night with some friends. It was a late night as sometimes happens in Paris and we were late getting up next morning."

Well, yes and then again, no; for while this approximates the truth is far from being the whole truth, which is much more entertaining. Neil McNab spills the beans:

"Before we left I was severely lectured by Raymond Mays to the effect that on no account was Mike to be let loose in Paris, as BRM wanted him to be in condition to drive at Monaco. We landed near Paris and grabbed a cab to Fred Payne's bar in Rue Pigalle, where we immediately got stuck into champagne. "In those days, half-bottles of bubbly were about ten bob each and we got through an astronomical number. Fred's place was next to a brothel and there were always several tarts in the bar, having a drink and looking for business. The more we drank the better-looking they became and we got very pissed, eventually going next door with two of the girls, who were by now looking very good indeed. "A while later, Mike suddenly appeared in my room stark naked and said, 'I'm getting bloody bored with mine. Why don't we go and see what else is going on? We might find some better-looking girls than ours.' "We were both very big blokes and pretty fit, so we went into some of the other rooms to see if we were missing out on any good crumpet. We'd just lift the bloke off his tart, have a good look at her and drop him back on again. What a furore that started!" A furore, indeed. The brothel was full of Algerian workers out for a night of horizontal dancing and they were not amused at having their coitus so rudely interruptus by the two giant Englishmen, who were naked, rampant and not a pretty sight! There was, as the saying goes, uproar in the house, and Hawthorn and McNab were lucky to escape with all their bits and pieces still attached." - p229

"Because Rouen was a road circuit, practice started at 6 am and was over by 8, leaving the drivers with the rest of the day free. I had joined up with Peter and Louise and Mike suggested that we all go to Deauville, so we piled into the Gull, had a delicious lunch, wandered about a bit and then flew back. As we came towards Rouen Mike was chatting away merrily and I thought we were approaching the runway rather too fast for comfort. At the very last minute he suddenly zoomed up and away and did another circuit, roaring with laughter. 'This air speed indicator of mine is absolutely up the creek!' he said, 'I must try again." - p230

"Terrifying!" he recalls emphatically. "He (Mike) wasn't the greatest map reader in the world and he used to follow railway lines to where we were going. Once we set off for Le Mans and when we got to Salisbury he realised we'd followed the wrong line out of Woking! He was definitely a 'seat of the pants' flyer. He was a good pilot in that he had a feeling for the thing, but there was very little theory involved in his navigation."

When Mike joined Peter at Ferrari in 1957 he asked Ken Gregory to look after some of his racing interests where they blended with Peter's. When they were in England, the Scuderia would cable Ken's office and ask for one or both to go to Modena for some testing. Ron Smith recalls:

"I'd phone Pete in Kidderminster to tell him that he was wanted in Modena on Tuesday, or whenever, but he'd say,

'Oh, we're going to be on the boat in Dartmouth. Give is Mike a ring.'

"So I'd call Mike in Farnham and he would say, 'What's Pete doing?'

""He's on his boat.'"

"Well, what's Taffy doing?"

"I don't know what von Trips is doing. Ferrari has asked for one of you.'

"Eventually, one or both of them would set off in

Mike's Vega Gull and, as likely as not, after a couple of hours I'd get a phone call.

""We've had to jack it in at Lydd, Ron. Can you get us on a flight from London?'"

So much for navigation. And Neil McNab says that - having retired from the circuits, Mike was planning to take up air racing. The mind boggles........." - p230

"During 1956, Peter's personal transport was a Ford Zephyr, which sported a bumper sticker proclaiming, I LIKE GIRLS!". If nothing else, this should ensure Mr Collins a place in the Guinness Book of Records, under the heading, 'Great Understatements of our Time.'

Peter and Mike simply loved the company of ladies and pursued them constantly, with vigour and lustful intent. Both men had a great deal going for them in this endeavour, being undeniably handsome, charming and charismatic to a degree. Mike was 6ft 2ins, so blond he was almost albino and possessed of a 'bowl-`em-into- bed' smile which seems to have been inherited by Jack Nicholson. For his part Peter was slight, straw-blond and so full of devastating charm it should have been illegal. Just as important is the fact that they were blessed with the gift of laughter and doubtless tumbled many a lass, giggling, between the sheets" - p241

"Before he joined Ferrari, Mike shared a flat in Chelsea with his newly-married friends, Pat and Jill Hume- Kendall. "He had a room which must have been a larder, or something, originally, because it had no widow." recalls Jill. "He called it Little Hell and it saw a lot of action - he used to bring different girls back there all the time. When we moved to Neville Terrace in the summer of 1953, Mike would often stay with us when he was in England and by then our son had arrived. I was always trying to keep his hands off my au pairs - that was my prime occupation when he was around! He also had affairs with most of my friends, the unmarried ones anyway." - p241/242

"It was at the end of that year the Mike met the first of his serious girlfriends, Moi Kenward. "I was working for Michelin Tyres at the Earls Court Motor Show and one of the reps who knew Mike brought him onto the stand for a drink. I'd just finished my stint and was about to leave when he said, 'Where are you going?' I told him I was going home and he said, 'No, you're not you're going to come and have a drink with me.' No invitation - just an order! "We went back to my flat, where I changed. He made no attempt at a pass and then we went to a sherry bar near the Michelin Building in the Fulham Road. It was all terribly innocent and I didn't go to bed with Mike for a very long time, which surprised him. Eventually, he took me to see a French film, The Ripening Seed', which did the trick and he always used to tease me afterwards. I had to take you to a sexy French film before you would go to bed with me!' I remember nothing about the film, but I do remember that Mike bought tickets for the cheapest seats in the house and immediately marched me up to the most expensive ones! That was so typical of him." - p241

"At the end of 1954 he won the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. I was terribly broke and living in a little flat in Earls Court. On the evening of the race I listened to the radio on the news and heard that he had won. I was so excited, but then I thought, I wonder if I heard correctly?' so I had to wait for the next news bulletin. My radio was plugged into the mains as were the lights and I had to put shillings in the meter. I was so short of money I turned out the lights and read a book by candle- light, to make sure I had enough electricity for the radio.

"Gregor Grant of Autosport told me that Mike didn't go to the post-race party as he was so anxious to fly back to me. He brought me a beautiful belt, which I still have. He was extremely generous in this respect and was always bringing me scarves and belts and things and later when he went off to a race he would as likely as not put £100 in my bank account before he left, which was a ■lot of money in those days."- p241

"On the other hand, he was incredibly jealous. When he was in hospital with his kidney problems I visited him constantly and whenever I popped out to the loo he would empty my handbag onto his bed and go through the contents. He had a key to my flat and I'd often find that he'd been through my chest of drawers and everything to see if I'd had a letter from some other man. He often said, 'If anyone else goes out with you I'll bloody well kill him!' and we weren't even engaged! And he would never introduce me to any of the other drivers because he was so jealous" - p242

"Robert Glenton (Mike's friend and ghost-writer on The Sunday Express) recalls that he was completely smitten by Cherry. "He seemed to take girls or leave them until she came along, but he lost a lot of sleep over her - he really became moon-struck. Cherry was Mike's great love. He really wanted to marry her and when Mike wanted something really badly he went at it like a bull at a gate. We were in the Steering Wheel Club at about 10 o'clock one night when he heard that she was going out with Peter Twiss, the test pilot whom she later married. I dropped him off at her mews flat and according to Cherry he broke the door down and they had a stand-up row. Mike was impossible and I can't imagine any girl being married to him - he was so overwhelming. When he fell in love he wore his heart on his sleeve." - p244

"He certainly had a million girlfriends when I knew him." says Cherry. "He was not what I would call the world's most faithful boyfriend and that must be putting it mildly. It was pretty heartbreaking at the time. Yet he was very puritan in many ways; he was a good, middle- class boy and he didn't really like too much hanky- panky. I remember him telling me that he and Fon de Portago once went out with two beautiful girls and just when Mike was wondering which of them was going to be his for the night, Fon announced that they were not going to participate, they were going to watch! Michael was not at all impressed.

"All men who have a lot of women are, basically, men's men. Michael loved his men friends and he loved going to the pub with the boys. He liked women for the other things they could give him, but he loved the company of men. He tried to be very sophisticated about women and was quite incapable of being faithful to any one of them. Even so, I am very pleased that I had my relationship with him when I did, when I was young and impressionable. I knew him at the height of his glamour and that was lovely. He was a golden star of a man." - p244

"The young drivers in question were, of course, Peter and Lance Macklin and HWM's Chief Mechanic, Frank Webb, recalls that, "Their first aim at every practice was to compare notes after a few laps - not on how the car was going, but what the birds were like on every corner. Once they had formed some sort of consensus, the chosen ones were in our pit within a quarter of an hour and from then on we didn't see a lot of them......." - p244

"Roy Salvadori, however, is more generous in his appraisal of Peter's lady friends. "They weren't terrible looking at all. He had one or two crackers, but more often than not they were unusual - attractive in a weird way. And it was never the same girl twiice running. He was a very attractive and popular guy - it wasn't that difficult to date Peter!" - p245

"I saw Collins with the girl in the passenger seat! I got him in the morning and said, 'How did you get on?' ""Fine,' he said. 'she was inexperienced but enthusiastic. We started off on the bed and finished up in the wardrobe!'- p245

"Tears don't come easy to Eleanora Herrera, 21 year- old heiress and member of one of Argentina's grandest families.' 'wrote Peter Hahn in The Daily Mirror 'But her eyes were brimming when she told me: PETER COLLINS JILTED ME." - p245

"Immediately after the wedding, Peter denied that he had jilted Eleanora, as she had claimed. 'The report is ridiculous.' he told the Daily Sketch. 'I was engaged to her but we decided to break it off. Our engagement was never made public. Neither was the break-off. I couldn't be more sorry Eleanora is so distressed, but its entirely wrong to say I jilted her. I can't believe she misunderstood me' - p246

"Mike's inability to pass by a pretty face got him into trouble on occasion, too. His friend Nick Syrett recalls one such incident.

"We'd been to the presentation of the Ferodo Trophy at the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair and had arranged to meet a couple of girls at The Steering Wheel Club at 8 o'clock. By the time we left the Dorchester it was 8-50, so we set off down Park Lane on foot and where the Hilton Hotel now stands was then a gathering place for ladies of the night. We noticed one in particular who was absolutely astonishingly beautiful and as we walked by she said, 'Hallo darling - want to come home with me?'

"This, of course, was irresistible to Mike! I tried to get him to move on as we were now almost an hour late for our date, but he was having none of it and protracted negotiations began. The girl wanted £4 (then the going rate) for her services and Mike - tight-fisted as ever - tried to beat her down to £3. After a lot of haggling the deal was abandoned and we finally made it to The Steering Wheel, where our ladies gave us a pretty frosty reception, having been kept waiting so long.

"We had a couple of drinks and then walked back to the Dorchester to collect the car and go on somewhere for dinner. The aforementioned lady was still on her patch and as we approached she looked Mike's girl up and down, then looked at Mike and said, 'See what you get for three quid!'

"The temperature between Mike and his girlfriend was already pretty chilly, due to our lateness and it now became very frosty indeed as she demanded to know the meaning of that remark. Mike tried to laugh it off, but by the time we reached the restaurant the temperature was well below zero and I insisted that our table for four was changed to two tables for two! Throughout the meal Mike was making frantic 'help me!' signs, but I just let him get on with it. My date and I eventually joined him and his friend for coffee." - p246/247

"Mike's last serious romance began in the Spring of 1958, when he started going out with 21 year-old Jean Howarth, one of London's top fashion models who worked for Hardy Aimes and John Cavanagh, among others. "I'd known Mike on and off for a while," she recalls, "because I had a boyfriend who lived in Farnham and we used to meet Mike in the local pubs. Our relationship started to get serious at the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting. "Behind the scenes with his mask off he was a very nice, quiet, loving homebody. He wanted to marry, settle down and have a home and children of his own and he was emphatic that he was not going to be a married racing driver - that would not be fair on the girl, who was going to be me. When he wasn't racing he liked to get up late on a Sunday morning, go to the pub for a few drinks and then come home for Sunday lunch. Afterwards he would put his feet up in front of the fire and watch the telly." - p247

"He was a very sensitive man and could cry easily. He was shattered by Peter's death and that made up his mind to retire at the end of the season. But smaller tragedies upset him too. He had a boxer dog called Grogger and one day during the 1958 Motor Show (or just after) we were having a drink with some friends at the Barley Mow at Tilford when Mike gave someone a run in his Ferrari demonstrator, leaving Grogger with us. When he heard the car coming back, Grogger ran in front of it and was killed. Mike was very upset about that and cried a lot." - p247

"Mike had proposed to Jean while they were driving from London to Farnham in his Jaguar.

"He asked me to marry him and, of course, I said, 'Yes!' says Jean, remembering that joyful moment with absolute clarity. With equal clarity she recalls how Mike - always the great romantic - then lobbed a king-sized rock into his new fiancée's placid pool of happiness.

"Now tell me." he said, "Do you have any skeletons in your cupboard?"

"No." said Jean, puzzled, "Why?"

"Because I do. I have a four year-old son in France." - p247

"He (Mike's son Arnaud) had fleeting memories of meeting him (Mike) on a couple of occasions, and of meeting Mrs Hawthorn not long after Mike was killed - but her interest in her grandson did not, it seems, last very long. Arnaud had not heard from her since he was a small boy and did not know if she was still alive. I was able to tell him that she was, but would not talk to anyone about her son, let alone her grandson." - p252

"It must be said that the fact that the Tennis Club was (and still is) private does not mean that Mike would have needed an invitation. He might have required one, but needed it....? No. As his old drinking buddies, the Members, well recall, Mike was adept at inviting himself to parties. If he saw some pretty girls through a window and heard the sound of clinking glasses, he was quite capable of walking in off the street and joining in the fun, his tremendous charm and that dazzling smile obviating the need for the formality of an invitation. It is quite possible that he was invited to the soirée, but he was for a few more days, anyway - completely unknown to the average citizen of Reims and so hardly likely to be there as a celebrity." - p253

"Jacqueline was enormously attracted to Mike at once, and vice versa." says Monique. "They spent every single moment together and Mike invited us both to be his guests at the race on the following Sunday. We told him that we were already going, with our father, so we agreed to meet afterwards. Of course, we had not the slightest idea that he would win. When we got home from the Tennis Club Jacqueline was terribly excited about Mike and talked about him non-stop." - p253

"By this time Cherry Huggins was Mike's girlfriend. She had recently learned to fly and Mike asked her to bring his Fairchild Argus over to Reims for him, which she did. 'I remember that there was a lady about who had Mike's son.' She recalls, 'I thought it was very irresponsible of him and I gave him hell about it. By that time he certainly had some pretty strong paternal feelings towards the boy,'" - p255

"From 1956 he visited Jacqueline every time he raced in Reims. Arnaud remembers seeing his father briefly in his aunt's house behind the cathedral. "My mother wanted me to be there to say hallo, but I refused at first as I was busy playing with my toy cars. I also recall meeting Mike at the circuit behind the pits, probably in 1958, and my mother told me that we went to England once to see him. We had a ride in his Jaguar, but I don't remember anything about that." - p255

"Stirling Moss suggested that as he was going to Miami, he should look up an actress of his acquaintance while he was there.

"I had met Louise with Donald Healey during the Nassau Speed Week the previous December." says Stirling. "She was a very beautiful girl and great fun, so I told Peter he could find her at the Playhouse."

On Monday, February 4, Peter duly called Louise and arranged to meet her that evening in the bar after the show. Little did Stirling know that he was playing Cupid in what was about to become a great romance! Naturally, Louise recalls that meeting as if it were yesterday.

"When I walked into the bar, Peter was already there and talking to Bob Said, whom we both knew. He obviously thought that Peter and I knew each other, too, because no introductions were made. We had a drink and then Bob suggested we all go out to dinner, but Peter said he couldn't leave yet, as he had to meet someone. I found this puzzling, as I thought he was there to meet me. 'Who are you meeting?' I asked.

""Louise King.' he said.

""You're crazy - I'm Louise!'

'We got over that and went out to dinner.' The following Wednesday afternoon I went to the motel where Peter and Mastern were staying and we were all sitting by the pool - Masten on my right and Peter on my left - when Peter asked me to marry him! I said 'yes' and we made plans in a couple of minutes of whispering and Masten never heard a thing.'- p260

"On Tuesday morning, Masten was in Kansas driving to his bowling alley, when he heard on the car radio that Peter Collins had got married. He thought that was a hoot - Peter had been out with me the previous week and now had obviously married someone else. He was furious when he learned that he'd been right there when Peter proposed" - p261

"As events turned out," says Gregory, "he was absolutely right. The marriage was a very good thing and Louise was a great influence on him in many ways. She was of a similar temperament and personality, free as the wind, full of fun and a very good-looking girl! I think she had a sensuous aura which attracted Peter - she was a very compatible and equal force and together they formed an even better force." - p261

"Their marriage in Miami was a joyous occasion, but for Peter it was marred by the stoney silence that emanated from his home. It was very clear from that dreadful transatlantic phone call that his parents (and his father in particular) were very unhappy about the union, but naturally, Peter had hoped for a congratulatory cable, at least, on his big day, It never came" - p264

"For the first time in my life I am able to realize what it means to really have someone for whom I have so much love, respect and tenderness that I'm afraid of things that may in any way spoil the happiness that we have found together.

I know that when you both meet Louise you will realize that she is not only a wonderful person but also so obviously right for me and I for her and I am sure you will both come to love her, not as much as I do because I don't think that is possible, but as a new and very fine member of our family." (Peter Collins letter to his parents) - p264

"I would like to say now that there is nothing more in this world that I would have rather had at our wedding than you and Mum but, well, I only wish I could put into words how much Louise means to me and now, after one week together even more so, if that is possible." (Peter Collins letter to his parents) - p265

'Just two months later, Stirling announced his engagement to Katie Molson, saying, "Of course I realise this is a foolish time to get engaged because Peter Collins has just got married and released a flood of crumpet onto the market and now I can't do anything about it!" - p266

'The Caribbean island was in ferment, as Fidel Castro was leading his rebel forces against the government and causing all kinds of trouble, so the Principal drivers Fangio, Moss, Collins and Castellotti - were all assigned heavily-armed bodyguards, Castellotti being informed that they were to keep the women away.... Peter and Stirling shared the attentions of an amiable giant named Chico, whose English was as fluent as their Spanish. On their first night in Havana, they managed to give him the slip and went to a boxing match. They had just taken their seats when a number of Castro's friends began firing their guns into the roof and in the ensuing panic several people were crushed to death. Moss and Collins made it to safety and were glad of Chico's company from then on' - p266

'At that time Tavoni had been working as Enzo Ferrari's personal assistant for seven years, so Ferrari had absolute trust in him and this more than made up for his complete lack of any racing experience.

He also lacked a proper knowledge of English, which was, of course, the lingua franca of motor racing. Mike Hawthorn welcomed his old friend to Sebring and decided to help him out.

"Mike said, 'Romolo, you must learn English with me, listen - Rosie, Posie, Pinkey, Pink, Shitty, Farty, Poopie, Stink. Repeat, Romolo!'

"So I repeat and he said, 'Good, now you explain to this gentleman's wife.' But Phil Hill was there and he said, 'No, no, stop Ferma!' It was the wife of Mr Alec Ullmann, the head man of Sebring!"

Just one of Hawthorn's little jokes......' - p267

'Louise remembers that dinner for a remark de Portago made at one point. With hindsight, he might

have been dictating his own epitaph. "Life has to be lived to the full." said the Spanish nobleman, who always did just that. "It is better to be wholly alive for thirty years than half-dead for sixty." The next day he was 'wholly dead' at thirty-one.

"Portago was a fascinating character," says Louise, "but I didn't find him attractive in the way that I found Taffy von Trips, Olivier Gendebien and Jo Bonnier attractive. He always seemed rough and unkempt to me - scruffy. Yet he attracted all these unbelievably beautiful women available women and lots of supposedly unavailable women too! He really was extraordinary in the way he got in and out of bed with an amazing number of females without others knowing about it. That man was so busy with women I don't know how he had any time for racing." - p271

"Phil Hill recalls that while Mike called Peter 'Mon ami mate' almost as a matter of course, Peter used it less frequently. At one time on the Saturday afternoon, Mike surely must have said the words with a hard edge to his voice, for Peter crashed his car!

Mike had been dissatisfied with the steering of his Ferrari on the Friday, so it was changed overnight. On the Saturday afternoon he found that the change made a marked improvement, but he was still not happy with the car's performance and asked Peter to have a go in it. 'Mon ami mate' promptly stuffed it at the chicane, piling head-on into a bollard on the very edge of the harbour and coming within an ace of emulating Alberto Ascari's diving exhibition of 1955. Mike was distinctly unchuffed at this, because that was his special, long chassis car and, clearly, it could not be repaired in time for the race.' - p278

'Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips was a handsome, charming, 29 year-old Count whose film biography - had it ever been made - could only have starred Robert Redford, who bears him a striking likeness. He started racing in 1950 and proved to be very fast, but wild, having numerous accidents. After a spell with the Mercedes sports car team in 1955, he drove for Porsche for most of '56 until invited to share a Ferrari with Peter Collins in the Swedish sports car GP at the end of the year. The two quickly became great friends and it was Peter who gave von Trips the nickname Taffy, "Because you look like a Taffy.' What the young German made of this irrefutable Collins logic is not on record, but the name stuck and Taffy von Trips went on to become a very popular member of the Ferrari team.

He lived with his parents in their ancestral home Wasserschloss Burg Hemmersbach in Horrem, not far from Cologne and, as he was back on his feet after his Nürburgring crash, Peter and Louise invited him out.

"He joined us for dinner with a beard!! Which makes him look about a million years old.'wrote Louise to her parents. 'He is feeling quite well but has to wear a big plaster cast all round his middle for about two more weeks. The beard came from lying flat on his back for a while and everyone tells him how terrible it is so it shall probably be removed shortly.

After dinner he took us to his house and showed us the films he took on his trip to the Americas this winter. We spent the night there and the next day met the family and took a look around the house and grounds. His home is a huge affair surrounded by two moats and parks, gardens, etc. During the war all the furniture and everything of value was stolen so its still in rather sad shape, but they've fixed up part of it to make it quite pleasant. Now we're at the Nürburgring again and getting back to our "routine weekends"!!' - p293

"He loved cottage pie, mince-meat, rissoles - never anything fancy," said Marge. "He used to sit with his knife and fork in his hands and say, 'flying start, Marge' and I would just put the plate in front of him and off he would go. Whenever he went abroad to race he would say, 'I'll be back on Monday for roast beef and Yorkshire pud.' He hated to be away for long' On rare weekends when he wasn't racing he would get together with Nick Syrett, who lived locally (and who would become Secretary of the British Racing and Sports Car Club in 1958). 'We had a Saturday routine." says Nick. "I would pick him up at the garage, we'd go to The Bush for a couple of pints and then on to Deeley's café in West Street for sausage, egg, chips and baked beans. Deeley's was a real 'greasy spoon' run by a Mr Wackett and Mike used to bring him matchbox labels from all over the world.

"After lunch we'd go to the cinema, irrespective of what was showing and then it would be back to the Duke of Cambridge for a few pints and a game of darts while we decided what we were going to do in the evening. Mike kept on devising these new games of darts which nobody but he understood. That was the whole idea, because it meant that he always won!" - p297

'Peter is now going through a change of life, or something, because he is talking more and more about stopping racing and building houses and raising little Peters and Louises. We've been searching the American housing magazines like mad and cutting out things, etc. I think we want to build a modern American-type house near Peter's home (and that's unheard of here). We have a piece of land about three minutes walking distance from Shatterford Grange that's on top of a hill, with a view both ways that goes for miles and miles.' Louise letters - p298

'It was an eventful journey. They arrived over Milan to find it covered in thick fog, so the plane was diverted to Turin, where they had to wait nearly three hours for a coach to take them to Milan. The coach driver clearly had something of the Kamikaze in him, for he kept trying to overtake huge lorries in the fog, which frightened the life out of Ken and Mike (one of the world's worst passengers).

After a death-defying trip they arrived in Milan to find there was no transport to take them to the railway station, where they were to catch a train to Modena. After walking a fair distance with their luggage, Mike spotted a taxi outside an hotel. They leapt inside, only to find that it had arrived to collect one of the hotel's guests. As they got out, Mike revealed that his years with Ferrari had taught him enough Italian to be able to question the taxi driver's parentage. The taxi driver replied in the same vein and Mike was all set to indulge in some serious fisticuffs until the driver produced his car's starting handle and the engine was already running.... Mike and Ken continued their walk to the station, eventually arriving in Modena just before midnight.' - p300

'Mike left the circuit early, to avoid the rush and - more important - to enjoy a couple of beers at a bar Ivor had found. Later, Mike returned to the motel where he, Peter and Louise, Taffy von Trips and Wolfgang Seidel were staying. He walked into the Collins' room and, finding that Louise had just run a hot bath for her tired, but victorious husband, stepped into it.

"He didn't say a word." remembers Louise. "He just got in, fully clothed and I'll never forget the sight of him lying there, tired and dusty, his clothes ballooning around him and his bow tie askew, as usual.

"He hadn't noticed that Paul O'Shea's wife, Robin, was with us. She burst out laughing and went into the bathroom to tease him. He pulled her down to him for a kiss and turned the shower on at the same time. She got completely soaked! Then Mike got out, carefully negotiated his way around the furniture and squelched out of the room. And he still hadn't said a word!" - p305

'A furious Hawthorn set off to walk back to the pits, only to be diverted by the sight of a beautiful blonde looking out of a window of the Station Hotel. Never one to miss such an opportunity, he asked her for a drink of water and she invited him in, so he clambered through the window, later returning to the pits in a much happier frame of mind' - p310

'Monaco marked the first anniversary of 'mon ami mate' and Mike and Peter continued to read the Four D Jones strip in The Daily Express avidly. Over the past year their friendship had become very close and an acknowledged feature of the racing circus, but what brought it about? In some respects it was clearly the attraction of opposites, for although both were bright, fun-loving personalities, Mike was very much the extrovert, who could be brash, loud and bloody rude when he felt like it, whereas Peter was somewhat introverted - quiet and with a much gentler character.

As their team-mate in 1957-58, Phil Hill became a close friend of both. "Peter was a great guy and always very helpful and friendly to me when I first joined the Scuderia in 1956, although our friendship had started in Argentina in 1954. I felt that he was a better-adjusted person than Mike, who seemed to have a defence mechanism built into his personality that Peter didn't have at all. He didn't find it as easy as Peter to open up to someone he felt he might be able to be friendly with. He wasn't nearly so approachable and he had a real temper! Mike could get really pissed off by something and become angry and irrational and darn near get physical. I remember leaving Monza one time and we were on the grass, driving past a line of stationary cars and there was an old lady on a bike in front of us and she just would not get out of the way. This infuriated Mike, so he gave her a push and she fell in a heap. She wasn't hurt and we drove on. Mike often got away with things like that." - p310

'The constant travelling meant that we were living in hotels, so our room became a home away from home for Peter and me, and for Mike, too. We had a refuge that he also enjoyed, so he would come and sit with us and he and Peter would get stuck into the endless supply of mystery paperbacks they had bought in Reims in 1957.

I became the den mother, constantly making tea for them, doing their ironing and sewing on buttons while they read their books. Occasionally I would cook for them, so I would be sent out to do the shopping. When we were in England or Europe I always had to buy The Daily Express, so they could catch up on Four D Jones. They called each other 'mon ami mate' and I became 'mon ami matess'.

"Their friendship never imposed on our marriage. Peter and I were really fantastically close, there was this tremendous bond between us and in the eighteen months we had together I don't remember anyone - certainly not Mike-interrupting that bond. The love we had for each other was so terrific and we were so close - physically all the time that no-one could come between us. It was not as if Peter went off to work every day.

"The three of us had a very nice, easy relationship. Mike was dear and we really enjoyed being together. His rudery was never directed at us usually at someone who got him a little off-base. He was boisterous and always funny, like the time when he climbed fully- clothed into the bath I had just run for Peter. I'm sure - that was just his way of releasing the tension of racing, which none of the boys ever wanted to talk about.

"Mike was always being pursued by various females and, of course, he did a fair amount of pursuing himself. When Peter and I were on 'Mipooka' in Monte Carlo harbour, Peter would often point out a pretty girl on the quay, saying, 'Don't you think Mike would fancy her?" For his part, if Mike met a girl he thought an old married couple like us would approve of he would introduce her, but if he found someone he thought we wouldn't like, he would go to enormous trouble to avoid us!

"I think our marriage made the relationship between Peter and Mike even closer than it would have been otherwise, because I was always there and I did accept Mike as Peter's very best friend. It was good for me, too, because I didn't have any close girlfriends during that time. I never got to know Katie Moss well at all, we were in different camps, but Harry Schell's wife, Monique, became a good friend. In the Ferrari team I was surrounded by delightful fellas like Phil and Taffy and Olivier, but next to Peter my closest relationship was with Mike, although he was never my confidant - I would never speak to him about a personal matter 1 wouldn't discuss with Peter." - p310

'Roy Salvadori liked both men enormously, but in his opinion, "They were possibly the worst pair of drivers Ferrari ever had! They were so friendly they weren't doing their best for the team. You used to see them following each other around, taking it in turns to lead, or tackle somebody, and you won't get results that way in Grand Prix racing. Can you imagine Peter sticking his neck out to beat Mike? It never happened, because it didn't matter to him whether he was quicker than Mike in practice or the race. They were so friendly they wanted to share everything, so they never pushed each other.' - p310/311

'The most important thing about Peter was that he had such an engaging personality. He could be infuriating, but it was literally impossible (even for me) to be annoyed with him for long. He could get away with anything just by turning on the charm, which never seemed to be forced or insincere. It seemed to illuminate everything he did and I never met anyone who was impervious to it." - p317

'By the time Peter arrived in Modena, Dino was also suffering from nephritis and his life was slipping away. Peter went to see him and the two young men born scarcely a couple of months apart formed an immediate rapport, as Romolo Tavoni testifies.

"Peter was a very good friend for Dino, because he was very sympathetic and understanding. Dino would say, 'Peter - are you going to the movies tonight?'

'No. I will stay here with you. Why?'

'Because if you go to the movies, tomorrow morning you can tell me all about it. I cannot get out of bed. I am like a small bird in a big cage.'

"So Peter would go to the cinema and the next day he would describe to Dino the movie he had seen. Naturally, this kindness created a very good impression with Enzo Ferrari and the Signora, although Peter did not do it for this reason." - p318

'At the end of June, Dino died. Enzo Ferrari and Laura were devastated, but at the same time they seemed to find in Peter a surrogate son and lavished kindness and affection upon him. Dino had had the use of a flat above the Ristorante Cavallino and not long after his death Ferrari insisted that Peter leave the Reale Hotel and move in. It is said that Signora Ferrari often made his breakfast and even took care of his laundry on occasion.' - p318

'"I got the distinct impression that the Old Man was looking to Peter to replace Dino in a sense - in an emotional rather than a family way. Peter learned to speak Italian well and often joined Ferrari for meals. He had arrived on the scene almost at the moment of Ferrari's greatest grief and I think the Old Man liked the fact that he was probably the least serious of all the drivers he ever had. He had this wonderful boyish, infectious sense of humour and he was always laughing. Ferrari was clearly very fond of him and they had a very good relationship." - p318

'Bernard Cahier is even more emphatic. "Ferrari fell in love with Peter and after Dino died he looked upon him as a second son. Peter enjoyed this relationship and spent much of his time at Maranello, but when he married Louise the Old Man became very jealous - he didn't like drivers' wives or girlfriends around at the best of times. A few years ago he told me that Peter was his favourite driver of all, but added, He would have had a wonderful career had it not been for that donna - that woman!"

Jabby Crombac has the same impression. "When Peter first went to Ferrari he was the darling of Enzo and his wife, Laura and when Dino died, Peter became the son they had lost, but when he married Louise, the climate changed immediately." - p318

'Throughout that year, whenever they were in Modena the Collinses would dine frequently with the Ferraris and Peter would spend a great deal of time with the Old Man. "They were certainly parental figures in both our lives." says Louise. "It is said that Ferrari didn't like it when Peter and I got married, but he never showed it to me. They were both very kind and always showed great warmth towards me."

Due to her lack of Italian, Louise's relationship with the Ferraris hardly extended beyond smiles, nods and gestures, but Peter arguably got closer to Enzo than any other driver, before or since. This intimacy brought fourth a remarkable result late in 1957, shortly before the Italian Grand Prix.' - p319

'Peter decided it was time to put their special relationship to the test. He went to see the Old Man and gave him a severe talking to.

"He felt that the root cause of Ferrari's unhappiness was the loss of Dino." says Louise. "He told him that he had done enough mourning; that he should stop living in the past (which he never did otherwise) and that he should pay attention to the racing programme and get it going again.

"Ferrari just sat there and said nothing, and I remember Peter coming back to me looking very worried. 'I don't think he'll ever speak to me again.' he said, 'I'm probably out of a job!"

What happened next astonished Peter and Louise. Ferrari summoned them both to his office, where he thanked Peter profusely for his advice and then made them a remarkable offer, as Louise excitedly informed her parents a few days later.

Ferrari has decided that he would keep us in Modena more if we had a nice place to live, so he has given us his villa near the factory at Maranello to use for as long as we want, They haven't lived in it since the war, so the day before yesterday we opened it up and started to clean the place. Its quite modern and we're thrilled to death with it. All we had to do was to open the windows and peasant-type people came screaming in to help. Peter has been getting some exercise getting weeds out of the driveway and I'm working miracles with soap and water inside. On the first floor we have two big rooms and a huge hall - both with marble floors - a small john and kitchen, and on the second floor three bedrooms, very big modern bathroom, a small room which will be a bar and a balcony that runs the full length of the house.' - p320

'Peter and Louise were in for another surprise. Enzo and Laura Ferrari arrived and presented Louise with a big three-diamond ring! 'We're still not quite sure why they gave it to me,' she wrote to her parents, 'but believe me, they got thanked good and proper. WOW!' - p320

'for a couple of weeks later Peter and Louise closed up the villa in Maranello and moved on board their new boat in Monte Carlo harbour.

That move was the beginning of the end of the special relationship. "Ferrari actually became jealous because Peter had escaped his clutches." recalls Jabby Crombac. "By leaving Maranello, Peter had deserted the family. He had become a traitor!"

So why did Peter leave? "He had become unhappy living under the Ferrari yoke at Modena." says Phil Hill.

"No matter who you were, when you lived there you had to toe the Ferrari line and like so many other people Peter became uncomfortable at always having to please Ferrari - for everything to have to go his way. Ferrari did everything he could to make Louise and Peter happy in that little house down the road from Maranello. He felt good having Peter nearby and he was not at all pleased when they went to live in Monte Carlo," - p320

'On their return from Le Mans, Peter and Louise stayed overnight at the Frensham Ponds Hotel, near Farnham, and spent some time with Mike and his mother in their house at Folley Hill, before heading North for Kidderminster. "The funny thing about that" says Louise, "was that Mike had complained bitterly about there being no headroom for him on our boat in Monte Carlo, yet in his own home he had to duck through every doorway!" - p321

'Peter was very upset about being dropped from the Grand Prix and that evening there was a pretty heated meeting between himself, Mike, Tavoni and Ken Gregory in the Collinses hotel suite at the Lion d'Or. "Mike took full blame for wrecking the clutch at Le Mans," says Ken, "but I was never sure that Tavoni believed him. Eventually, we persuaded Tavoni to talk to Ferrari on Peter's behalf and he phoned him the next day, with the result that Peter got his drive in the Grand Prix, as well as doing the F2 race." - p325

'Tony Rudd was there with BRM and he recalls having lunch at the Lion d'Or with Harry Schell. "He told me that he was going to have a good steak and a bottle of Beaujolais, then he was going to take his wife, Monique to bed for one of the best experiences of her life! During the meal, Mike Hawthorn passed by and whispered to me "Keep him talking!" Later, I learned that when Harry and Monique got to their room they found that absolutely everything had been removed, there was just a large vase of flowers in the middle of the floor. Then they found that they had been locked in.

"Harry kicked up such a spectacular row that next day the perpetrators carried his little Vespa car in off the street and up the stairs to the card room on the second floor, where they left it with a 'For sale' sign on top" - p325

'Despite the tragedy, the Grand Prix circus carried on as usual. That night Tony Rudd walked into everyone's favourite watering hole, Bridget's Bar, to be greeted by Mike.

""Glad you've come.' he said, and proceeded to wind a hosepipe round and round my waist before sticking the nozzle down my trousers. I managed to remove it just before he turned the water on!" - p326

'For his part, Peter apparently resolved to help Mike all he could in his quest for the Championship, as Sir David Brown recalls. 'Peter and Louise came aboard my boat in Monte Carlo several times before the British Grand Prix and I remember a discussion when Peter suggested that instead of hanging back and driving to finish at Silverstone, he should go flat out and tempt the opposition to chase him and blow up. He would either blow up, too, or slow down and allow Mike to go through and win. He asked me what I thought and I said, 'Its all right if it works.', but it didn't work. He led from the start, but his car did not blow up and he won!" - p327

'The Collins family returned joyously to Shatterford Grange, taking with them Tony Brooks and his fiancée, Pina Resegotti, whom he had met when the Aston Martin team was racing at Rouen in 1956. Peter booked them into a nearby hotel and was astonished when Tony asked for separate rooms. Pina laughs at the memory. "He was so impressed by that. To think that there were still some people who did not sleep together before they were married! He joked about it almost in amazement but in a very nice way. He respected our decision, although he obviously thought we were crazy. Peter had such tremendous charm and savoir faire. That weekend he spent some time trying to persuade Tony to join Ferrari - 'You will fit in so well with Mike and me.'" - p329

"Racing weekends in general were very social," recalls Louise "and when we went to the hotel lobby or restaurant it was always a time of high energy. Mike spent a great deal of time with us and I can't remember the first occasion I woke up to find him in our bedroom, looking down on Peter and me saying, 'Where's the tea?' Invariably he would join us for breakfast and he and Peter would bully me - there was never enough tea and while I was ringing Room Service for more they would drink up all the milk." - p333

'Meanwhile back at the start and finish area the racing fraternity was in a fearful state of uncertainty, as American journalist Denise McCluggage recalled in Auto Week:

'We didn't hear anything. We didn't know anything. There had been a helicopter, we were told. They had taken Peter to Bonn. And time stretched on.

'I don't remember whose room we were in at the Sporthotel under the stands, nor exactly who was there. Eight or ten others. We were waiting an understood but acknowledged waiting. Anyone close to racing is familiar with it. And in the meantime we talked and laughed. I was cutting Jo Bonnier's hair.

'Jo and I were the only ones facing the open door and we saw Mike first and froze and then everyone else turned and froze.

Mike Hawthorn was big and square-jawed and fair- haired. So fair. One of those English schoolboy faces that said "Goodbye, Mr Chips." to Robert Donat. He was still in his driving clothes - his dirty white pants, his green battle-jacket. His face was streaked. And tired.

'He didn't have to say anything. Slowly in his hands he turned a shattered brown crash hat we all recognised as Peter's.'

Mike went to his room and packed his belongings. He was then told by Artur Keser of Mercedes that Peter was seriously hurt and had been flown to Bonn. He packed Peter's and Louise's things and then, with Harry Schell, set out for the hospital in the Mercedes Peter and Harry had hired at the airport a couple of days earlier.' - p336

"They wanted to see Peter, so I went to the Reception and said, 'I am Tavoni of Ferrari and I want to see Peter Collins, who has been brought here by helicopter.'

"But you will see a dead man!' said the receptionist.

"I told her his wife is here and she wants to see him."

Louise was adamant. "I needed to see him, otherwise I wasn't going to believe he was dead." she says. "I think Mike and I probably still had a strong feeling that it was all a mistake. I remember going into the room and he was on a table of sorts. I just saw one foot and it was absolutely white. It could have been anyone's foot, but I finally knew. I didn't need to see anything else."

Tavoni remembers vividly that "The doctor pulled back the sheet and there was Peter, like he was asleep. Mike took one look, turned and went out into the corridor, where he leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. He just sat there, saying nothing. I looked at Peter. There was a bruise on one arm and the skin at the back of his neck was very red, but that was all." - p336

"There were hundreds of people waiting to see us get off the plane." remembers Louise. "The observation platform at Heathrow was absolutely packed and the Press were everywhere. There was a special Press reception area and when Mike and I walked in it was like going through a tunnel of people. Mike spoke to them briefly and then someone produced a car for us and we drove up to Kidderminster. When we got there we were in such a state that we couldn't remember how to get to Shatterford, so we found The Black Boy at Bewdley and Alistair Wilson looked after us."

"They arrived here at about 7 pm in Mike's Jaguar." recalls Alistair. "Louise was in a bit of a state and stayed outside the pub having a couple of brandies. As Pat and Elaine were still on their way back from Dartmouth, she had arranged to pick up some keys for Shatterford Grange from the Lodge to the house, but neither she nor Mike could remember how to get to Shatterford from Bewdley. I led them over in my car and once they had got the keys I left them there to wait for the others." - p337

'Mike was absolutely shattered by the death of 'mon ami mate'.

"It really floored him." says Bill Morgan, who was still running the TT Garage with Mrs Hawthorn. "He talked about it frequently in the following weeks and it affected him very badly - he nearly finished with racing right there and then. On more than one occasion he sat with me in the office and said, 'Bill, I'm giving up. I'm getting the twitch."

He said much the same thing to Jill Hume-Kendall.

"He was in floods of tears and very shaky about the whole thing. He wasn't at all sure that he could go on racing." - p338

'I have never seen Ferrari as upset as he is now over Peter's death. He said that since his own son died he regarded Peter as his son and wanted to give us the villa and to give Peter part of the Ferrari factory. He was so much like Peter's father with so many plans for his future and now all that is just finished. Well, its wonderful that Peter did have that marvellous relationship with Ferrari.' - p338

'Mike decided to continue racing, feeling a deep obligation towards Peter, who had been trying so hard to help him win the title. His earlier decision to retire at the end of the year, however, was now set in stone as a result of Peter's death.' - p339

'The evidence that cleared Mike came, remarkably, from his great rival Stirling Moss.

"I spoke up for Mike because it looked as though they might disqualify him and I didn't want to win the Championship by default. I had seen him stall the car and I told him to go down the hill and re-start. But he wasn't on the circuit - he was on the escape road, so there was no question of him going against the traffic and I felt that he should not be disqualified.

"It cost me the Championship, but so what? It depends on which way you want to win it. I liked Mike so I volunteered the information. If it had been someone else I might have waited to see if I was asked." - p340

'Mike was staying at the Palace Hotel, in Milan, as was Louise, who realised with a jolt that the great friendship she and Peter had shared with him was virtually over. "With Peter gone, his attitude towards me changed completely." she says. "It was probably the simple fact that we were not three anymore. I went to his room on the morning of the race and we had tea together. It was a mistake. Later, we went to the circuit with some friends of his and after the race I saw him only very briefly before he was gone."

The friends were Michael and Noreen Irving Swift, who lived near Mike in Farnham and were holidaying in Italy, having arranged to go to the race with him. "When we arrived at the Palace Hotel it was about mid- day and he was still in bed." says Michael. "He wasn't looking forward to the race at all the Championship was really getting to him. Eventually five of us set off for Monza - Mike, Jack Dunfee, my wife and I and Louise. We all piled into Mike's Lancia Aurelia, which had no brakes as such, so it was quite a ride. Louise was holding together quite well in the circumstances, for not only was this her first race since Peter's death, but certain charming sections of the Press were trying to make out that she and Mike were having and affair, which was nonsense." - p343

'A week or so later, he took his girlfriend Jean Howarth to Paris, where he first admired the curves of the cars at the Salon and later those of the girls at the Saloon (Crazy Horse).

"There was one who did a reverse strip-tease." says Jean. "Mike found that very interesting! It was a great relief for him to get away from England for a few days. The long gap between the races made him very nervous and people would keep asking him silly questions about the Championship."' - p346

'Previously he had never come to my bedroom the night before a race, but he did in Casablanca. Most unlike Michael!' - p347

"You did it, you old so-and-so." said the gallant loser, who must have been bitterly disappointed to have won four races and still failed to secure the title.

An ecstatic Romolo Tavoni clapped Mike on the back.

"Next year we will do it again."

"I won't be racing next year." said Mike, "I'm going to retire."

Tavoni didn't believe him.

For the man who had just become World Champion, Mike was decidedly lacking in excitement immediately after the race. "He was quite strange - he didn't want to know anyone." says Jean Howarth. "He walked me away from the circuit with everyone trying to get him back. He just wanted to get to the hotel for some peace and quiet and he was worried about Stuart Lewis- Evans, for the news of him was not good. And Olivier Gendebien had had a big accident, too." - p348

'What should have been a glorious day of victory for Mike ended in a pretty downbeat manner, with everyone deeply concerned about the condition of the very popular Stuart Lewis-Evans. Mike, Jean and some friends decided to have a couple of drinks in their hotel room before turning in, but then Ralph Martin of Shell arrived and suggested they all go to a nearby night club and join up with John Cooper, Roy Salvadori, Graham Hill and Cliff Allison.

They went, but not before Mike had sent a cable to Louise, who was playing in 'Romanoff and Juliet' at the National Theatre in Washington, DC. Deeply conscious of the part Peter had played in his success, Mike gave Louise the good news:

'WE HAVE DONE IT MON AMI MATESS. WILL WRITE SOON. LOVE MON AMI MATE. MICHAEL.' - p348

"He walked into a wall of something he never expected all the fuss that went with the title. His idea of the end of season was to go splashing about in the mud on his motor bike, chasing girls and drinking in pubs, but now he was virtually under arrest from the time he became World Champion. He didn't have a moment to himself and he had no agent, no organisation to deal with it." - p349

'Mike and Jean spent Christmas with Mrs Hawthorn at Green Fields, on Folley Hill. It was not the most enjoyable of Christmas Days for Mike, as his kidneys were giving him considerable pain and he spent the day in bed. He recovered in time to spend New Year's Eve with Jean at nearby Wanborough Manor, but New Year's Day brought him something of a slap in the face Britain's first World Champion was not included in the New Year's Honours List! Nor was Tony Vandervell, whose Vanwalls had done so much for Britain's prestige and had won the Constructors' title. However, Stirling Moss, who had not won the World Championship, was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

The racing world was delighted for Stirling, who thoroughly deserved his honour, but the omission of Mike Hawthorn and Tony Vandervell from the list seemed like a calculated snub by someone. Nick Syrett phoned his friend to commiserate.

"I see your mate won the OBE, then." he said, with some sarcasm.

"Yes," said Mike, "Order of the Bald Ead."

And that was the end of that conversation.' - p352

"When Mike asked my father's permission to marry me he had not - understandably - said anything about his illegitimate son in France." says Jean. "I went home to explain that situation and the following weekend Mike was going to Paris to see his French lawyer and make some kind of settlement on the boy." - p353

"I'd been staying with Peter's parents at Shatterford Grange, and on my way to London I stopped and called Mike to confirm the time of our date at the Westbury. He sounded marvellous and said he would meet me at 3 o'clock. I'd hardly seen him at all since Peter died, so I was really looking forward to that afternoon." - p354

'Mr James Marks saw the crash from his house. He told The Daily Express; 'When the two cars passed me they were going at such a speed I knew something must happen at the bends they were approaching. They were neck and neck as they went by my house. I opened the window to watch. The Jaguar, approaching the bend, just could not get far enough over to the far side to negotiate it. It shot across the road and ended in a ditch.' - p354

"The car was on its side, wrapped around a tree....Hawthorn was barely breathing. He had no pulse. He was deeply unconscious. He possibly breathed twice, but it was too late to do anything." - p355

'John Coombs also called Bill Morgan at the TT Garage.

"He told me that Mike had had a spill and would I come down straightaway. I went to find Mrs H and we joked about it. 'Hope he hasn't done any damage. Then Coombs called again and said, 'Don't come here, they've taken him to the Guildford Hospital.' When we arrived there, someone came out to meet us and before he could say a word, Mrs H said, 'My son is dead, isn't he?'" - p355

'Not long after the funeral the surgeon who had operated on Mike in 1954 wrote to Bill Morgan to say that while his death was very sad, it was really for the best. He had died in an instant and without suffering, whereas had he lived it would have only been for another year or eighteen months, as his kidneys were deteriorating rapidly and would have caused him a great deal of unpleasantness before they failed completely. Their condition was incurable. Duncan Hamilton was told the same story by the man who had conducted Mike's autopsy.' - p359

#this is a very long read #but filled with lots and lots of information #funny and sad #classic f1 #f1 #formula one #formula 1 #vintage f1 #mike hawthorn #peter collins

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