SALMON’S TALES

IT WAS with great sadness that I learned of Mike Salmon’s death in Octane 153. I was lucky enough to spend a day with Mike and his wife Jean back in 2009, interviewing him for the upcoming Palawan Press book on the Aston Martin DB4 GT (Mike raced a Zagato-bodied GT and also both Project 214s in period). His story telling was utterly wonderful.

Mike had a great memory for the detail of his racing career – plus funny stories of emergency landings on the way to Daytona in 1964; of nearly gassing Lo1y England with his XK while warming it up in the Jaguar car park outside Lo1y’s open office window; a very graphic description of being badly burned at Le Mans in a GT40; plus a much less well-known tale of a lap of Le Mans driving the Nimrod Aston Martin while covered in fuel but refusing to stop, in order to get the car back to the pits for the leak to be repaired!

Mike was extremely patriotic and it was clear that he was desperately keen for the contemporary Aston Martins he raced in the 1960s and 1980s to do well, but he was also honest in recognising their failings and the fact that there were better cars on the grid.

Mike’s obituary made reference to both Project 214s being destroyed. In fact, only one of the two Project 214s Aston Martins was destroyed, and there has been some debate about exactly what happened to this car, in which Brian Hetreed lost his life following a crash at the Nürburgring 1000kms in 1964. I quizzed Mike extensively on the subject and he confirmed that the body and chassis of DB4GT/0195/R were scrapped, at the request of Brian’s widow, but the running gear was saved. DAMIEN BENNION LONDON SW12