TIFF NEEDELL ‘I WAS A FAN WHO MADE IT TO GRAND PRIX RACING’
Tiff Needell is probably one of the best-known racing drivers in the UK. His career has taken him in front of the cameras as much as it has done behind the steering wheel and he has cemented a place in the public consciousness.
The former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter might be known to a certain generation as a man who is expert at hooning some luxury saloon or other around at seemingly impossible angles. But to others, who remember the rising star of junior single-seater racing in the late 1970s, he is a man who never got the chances at the top level that his ability deserved.
He did make it to Formula 1 for a solo grand prix before the revolving door spat him out. Beyond that, there were successful appearances at Le Mans and some high-profile outings in the British Touring Car Championship but the biggest prizes eluded him.
He tackles the MN readers’questions and has a look back on a career which has given him a great deal of pride.
MN sets the scene: Motorsport weekly Autosport offered its readers the chance to win a pukka Formula Ford chassis each year in the early 1970s. It would be the perfect launchpad for a young career, and motorsport-obsessed Needell got in on the act.
Question: Why did you enter the Autosport competition to win a Formula Ford 1600 Lotus?
John Charles Via email
Tiff Needell: “The reason I entered is because I didn’t win it two years earlier! When I first entered the competition, I was still at school. That year, the prize was a Lotus 61. I had been into motorsport and I had been going to Goodwood as a spectator since I could walk so I was desperate to give it a go.
“Let me assure you, it was a skilled competition – it wasn’t just filling in a coupon! There was a list of 10 items under a heading ‘what is the most important thing preparing for a race?’ and you had to put them in order of importance. There were 15 options. The judging panel would then put their list in order, and you had to match what they had put.
“It was a very popular type of competition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. You had to buy each line that you wanted to use, and I think they were two shillings a line. I think I bought 24 different lines and tried my luck with a couple of different orders. One of mine ended up matching
