It is fifty years since Peter Collins competed in his final race. At the Nurburgring in 1958 the 26-year old Englishman was pushing his Ferrari Dino 246 hard, in pursuit of Tony Brooks’s leading Vanwall. His race, and his life, ended when the Ferrari left the road at the section called Pflantzgarten. In Collins, the racing community had lost a respected competitor and a consummate gentleman.
Early Racing Career in F3 and Sports Cars
Collins was well known for his close relationship with Mike Hawthorn, as the two British drivers lived life to the full on the 1950s racing scene. Both drivers came from similar backgrounds. Collins’s father owned a garage and haulage company in Kidderminster while Hawthorn’s father was also a garage owner, in Mexborough and then Farnham.
Collins began his racing career before Hawthorn, competing in the burgeoning 500cc Formula 3 class during 1949. He won races at both Goodwood and Silverstone that year and was soon also competing in hill climbs. In 1951 he had his first experience of driving on the notoriously tricky Dundrod TT circuit, where he piloted a Cadillac-Allard. He retired from that race but, by 1952, he was a member of the Aston Martin sports car team, under the command of John Wyer.
Collins scored a sensational victory at the 1952 Goodwood Nine Hours race, sharing an Aston with Pat Griffiths. The duo went on to further success, including a win at Dundrod the following year. Collins also made his Grand Prix debut in 1952, at Berne. In 1952 and 1953 the World Championship was run to Formula 2 regulations and Collins competed in a British HWM. His best result of the 1952 season was sixth in the French Grand Prix at Rouen.
Collins Joins Vanwall and BRM
Formula Libre events were a highlight of many 1950s race meetings and Collins found a ride in the category with Tony Vandervell’s team. Vandervell had purchased a Ferrari to study, with the intention of manufacturing his own Grand Prix car. Collins performed well in the car, known as the Thinwall Special, and his results included a win in the Whitsun Trophy meeting at Goodwood. It was merely a stop-gap measure before Vandervell’s own Vanwall Special was ready to race.
1955 saw the last staging of the Dundrod TT for cars. The circuit was deemed too unsafe following three fatalities in the race. Collins was paired with Tony Brooks in an Aston and fought hard with the superior Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR’s before retiring. In that year’s Daily Express International Trophy race at Goodwood, Collins won in a Maserati by half a second from the similar car of Roy Salvadori. The car was owned by the Owen Racing Organistaion, who were behind BRM. Collins had signed to drive for the team but BRM’s own car, the P25, was running far behind schedule.
Peter Collins's Formula 1 seasons with Ferrari.
