Smart suits and speedy cigars: a paddock mystery from the '50s

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You've all heard it said that 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there' and, indeed, the time when you could go to a race meeting and all the men in the paddock, including the drivers and mechanics, would be smartly attired in shirts and ties is fast disappearing from memory. It's a pity, really, but at least there's still a healthy enthusiasm for keeping old racing cars alive.

Take this handsome machine, for example. There's a reasonably good chance it still survives. It may be that it's been fully restored. It may be that it occupies pride of place in someone's private collection, or it may even be that it still gets raced hard before thousands of spectators year in, year out. We'd love to tell you but we don't know because, you see, we don't actually know what the car is.

We're sure it's very distinctive when you have a detailed knowledge of 1950s Grand Prix cars, but we're afraid that's not quite our area of expertise. Identifying the out-of-focus Morris J-type van in the background was no trouble, but the racing cigar in the foreground is another matter...

The question that we'd like you to answer for us first is, of course, what is it? Then, if you can tell us that, maybe you can connect the car with its race number and work out exactly at what race meeting the picture was taken. Lastly, we'd love to know who the nattily-dressed young man behind the wheel is. Anyone famous?

We're sure there's a lot to be said about the car, the event and the driver - we just need you to give us a helping hand.

Words: Zack Stiling; photograph: Stiling Collection
 

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