James Hunt

Box of Frogs

Zamoras Left Boot

Oct 8, 2003

4,751

Right here, right now

• Jun 14, 2013

• #1

Twenty years ago since he started driving the great Formula One circuits in the sky.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22887679

They don't make racing drivers like they used to!

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2013

PWA

European Tour 2023/24

Jul 23, 2011

1,467

West Sussex

• Jun 14, 2013

• #2

He was a right 'lad' to say the least.

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2013

seagull_special

Well-known member

Jun 9, 2008

2,931

Abu Dhabi

• Jun 14, 2013

• #3

20 years ago, that really is scary. He was a proper playboy!!!!!!

 

M

mune ni kamome

Well-known member

Jun 5, 2011

2,218

Worthing

• Jun 14, 2013

• #4

I was invited into the Hesketh trailer at Zandvoort once. Great bloke and a real law unto himself.

 

Motogull

Todd Warrior

Sep 16, 2005

9,849

• Jun 14, 2013

• #5

For those of us of a certain age, him and Barry Sheene will always be the main men.

 

The Modfather

New member

Dec 13, 2009

7,210

Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads

• Jun 14, 2013

• #6

A great character, unlike the dullards in F1 nowadays.

 

Bill Cassidy's tie up

New member

Feb 9, 2011

1,047

Lancing

• Jun 14, 2013

• #7

Barry Sheene a great bloke met him a couple of times when my wife worked at Shoreham airport. He was taking his helicopter license , Ian Botham too about the same time.

 

Gregory2Smith1

J'les aurai!

Sep 21, 2011

5,476

Auch

• Jun 14, 2013

• #8

 

Gregory2Smith1

J'les aurai!

Sep 21, 2011

5,476

Auch

• Jun 14, 2013

• #9

great commentator too

 

glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick

Nov 29, 2005

20,261

somewhere in Eastbourne

• Jun 14, 2013

• #10

Hunt the shunt
that Japanese GP was the one that will always stick in my mind

 

S

Seagull over Canaryland

Well-known member

Feb 8, 2011

3,549

Norfolk

• Jun 14, 2013

• #11

Saw James Hunt testing for McLaren at Goodwood back in '77 (when he was the reigning World Champion). In those days you just wander into the infield area, sit on the pit wall and listen to the drivers and mechanics chatting. No stewards or security. None of this £250 to get a paddock pass nonsense.

Hunt handed over driving the car to his teammate Patrick Tambay but Hunt stayed on the pit wall and was very approachable. Every time Tambay drove back into the pits Hunt was taking the p*ss out of him. Somewhere in my loft I have a photo of Hunt who happily posed by his car and was wearing a no.7 Barry Sheene t-shirt. The 1977 McLaren wasn't that competitive but the Goodwood test must have helped because I recall Hunt won the British GP at Silverstone a few days later.

Hunt was a great character. It is mindboggling to think that the current world champ would test at somewhere so basic as Goodwood was in those days, but several of the F1 teams did. Especially considering that team founder Bruce McLaren was killed there in 1970. No run off areas just a concrete perimeter wall with about a foot gap at the bottom that would have so easily sliced an F1 car in half. Scary.