The world's greatest racing cars

When we had the idea of asking the good and great of our sport to nominate their greatest racing car, I envisaged these opening paragraphs to be a celebration of all the cars on the following pages. Instead, I find myself writing an apology. It’s an apology to all those who sent lists which we have not been able to publish. Frankly, we were overwhelmed. Be assured, however, your votes have still been included.

Almost everyone who was asked replied, which is the last thing anyone attempting an exercise such as this should expect. Even those few who declined to take part tended to be unusually eloquent in their refusal. The result was a flood of letters from people, many of whom supplied essays explaining their various choices. We seem to have stumbled upon an issue that has provoked some considerable interest.

We were unable to include in the final maths only those who chose to nominate a marque as a whole rather than an individual car. These choices have, however, still been recorded here. AF