Masters of style

Sir,

A sentence in your article on Tony Brooks — “All flexing fingertips, silken style and arrowing accuracy” — brought to mind Manfred von Brauchitsch, whose obituary was only a few pages before.

In the 1980s I was working in Germany and, on the 50th anniversary of the death of Bernd Rosemeyer (28 January 1988), there was a documentary on television in which the silver-haired Manfred appeared. He used virtually the same expression to describe Rosemeyer’s driving style — “er war so leicht” — using his hands and arms to describe someone almost caressing a steering wheel rather than forcing the car against its will.

Tony Brooks always impressed me as someone who came to a race to do a job, got down to it, did it quietly, and went home at the end of it. No histrionics.

I am, yours, etc
Peter Whybrow, Ampthill, Beds