And finally...

Sir,

I first saw Sir Jack at Snetterton when he stayed in front of Moss in the wet, despite being in a bobtailed Cooper Sports and Moss in a 250F Maserati.

On the way home we came upon Sir Jack standing beside his beat-up boiling Buick (or some such pre war US make). It was in a pub car park so we took him for a drink.

Some time later, I went with my friend, the late Chris Summers, who hoped for a Cooper drive, to the French GP at Rouen. On race day friends took us to the Cafe de Sport. Despite the noise of the cars hurtling past flat-out, Madam informed us ‘M Coopair et M Braam dorment’. We sank a few calvados and waited for them. When they did we had one of the most amusing breakfasts imaginable. John Cooper is brilliantly funny and Brabham played the straight man. Their tales of ‘economy racing’ round Europe were hilarious. In order to save the racer they’d convince the local car hire bod that having a racing driver use their cars was a good advert so they gained a car free.

At about this time there were suggestions that Fangio was an ‘old man’. But Jack told us: “My engine was too small for speed but the car was fast through corners. I passed the pits and braked for the downhill swerves, and this red car shot past me flat out and semi-broadside. I thought ‘Christ he’s bought it’ but it was just Fangio in his 250F and he did the same thing lap after lap!”

I am, yours, etc. Iain H F MacKinnon, Hall Green, Birmingham