Keeping up standards
Sir: Taki tells us of motor racing's age of innocence (High life, 7 October) when drivers wore polo helmets and Mike Hawthorn raced wearing a bow tie.
For the 1939 Le Mans 24-Hour Race, R.R.C. Walker, who showed an early pre- occupation with the internal combustion engine rather than the Scotch whisky upon which his family fortune was built, considered that a dark blue pin-striped suit would be an appropriate form of dress for the occasion as his first driving shift would begin at eight o'clock, then the fashionable hour for dinner.
A contemporary report reads: could just see the white pin-stripe in Rob Walk- er's blue suit as my headlights caught it going down the straight at 125 mph.' For the morning drive, an informal Prince of Wales checked suit was preferred and, two hours before his finish in eighth posi- tion, Walker received an unexpected sig- nal to stop at his pit for a glass of cham- pagne — his crew thought he might be getting a 'bit tired'. After the race, Walker drove to Paris where most of the British drivers were still celebrating in a night club at ten o'clock the following morning.
Rupert Prior
Car Department, Sotheby's, New Bond Street, London W1
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