Collins at the Club

Sir,

The profile of Peter Collins was particularly poignant for me when I read how Enzo Ferrari described his “generosity of character”, something I can endorse from personal experience.

As a boy in the 1950s, I was an avid golfer at Kidderminster Golf Club. By that time I had already developed a keen interest in cars and would wander around the car park admiring members’ cars.

I don’t recall Peter ever playing golf but he visited on several occasions during which I often came into his company – I hesitate to say ‘met’ as in those days children were hardly introduced. However, I recall Peter as warm and friendly. On one sunny afternoon he arrived driving what I only saw then as a convertible Ferrari in dark green, the most memorable feature of which was the ‘cut down’ door.

Some 20 years later I discovered that this car was unique – 250GT Pininfarina Spider serial number 0655 GT. Peter fitted the car with disc brakes and D-type Dunlop alloy wheels but I cannot recall whether it was so fitted on that sunny afternoon in 1956 when he left with a friendly smile and a wave.

My next memory was being told that Peter had been killed. Father attended the funeral, returning home to share with me what Peter’s father had told him – “Never let your son go motor racing.” I have now been competing for over 40 years. However, in those quiet moments on the starting grid, the words of Peter’s father always come back into my head and I make one extra tug on the seat belt. In that small way Peter Collins and his “generosity of character” live on.

Anthony Moody, via e-mail