On the 3 August, 1958, British racing driver, Peter John Collins (6 November 1931 – 3 August 1958) was a He was killed in the 1958 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, just weeks after winning the RAC British Grand Prix.

While pushing hard to keep pace, Collins lost control of his Ferrari, which flipped into the air, landing upside down. Collins was thrown from the car and struck a tree, sustaining critical head injuries. Despite hospital treatment Collins died later in the afternoon .Teammate Mike Hawthorn was so disturbed by Collins’s death that he retired from racing immediately after winning the 1958 Drivers’ Championship.

Born in 1931, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the son of a motor-garage owner and haulage merchant, he became interested in motor sport at a young age. Expelled from school at 16 for spending too much time at a local fairground during school hours, he became an apprentice in his father’s garage and began competing in local trials races.

His racing career began in 1949, when as a 17-year-old he impressed in Formula 3 races, finishing third in the 1951 Autosport National Formula 3 Championship.

In 1956, Collins moved to Monaco in order to avoid compulsory military service in the British Army where he joined Ferrari to continue his racing career.At the time he was on the verge of becoming Britain’s first F1 World Champion when he handed his Lancia-Ferrari D50 over to team leader Juan Manuel Fangio who had suffered a steering-arm failure at the Gran Premio d’Italia, Monza. Collins’s selfless act earned him  the unstinting admiration of Enzo Ferrari, who commented, ‘I was moved almost to tears by the gesture… Peter was one of the finest and greatest gentlemen I ever met in my racing career’.

3 August, 2019