ALLAN WINN

Retiring CEO and director of the Brooklands Museum Trust, a man with a passion for all things mechanical

1. This is the most important book that anyone who owns and operates a vintage Bentley can have, the ultimate owner’s manual. I acquired Technical Facts of the

Vintage Bentley when I bought my 3 Litre in 1985, and I use it constantly. It lives next to the car in the garage.

2. These postage scales sat on a desk in my father’s bicycle shop. Their mechanical design appealed to my inner engineer, but because they dictated pricing they also made me think commercially.

3. After my engineering degree I didn’t like the jobs I was offered, so became a journalist. For 20 years, this Olivetti typewriter was my worldwide travel companion and wrote millions of words.

4. In 2007 we celebrated the centenary of the Brooklands circuit. We brought 200 original Brooklands cars back and proved it could once again be a place where things happened. The recreations of the period armband and lunch menu from the day represent the start of many things we now do at the museum.

5. My first motor sport event was with the Canterbury University Motor Club in New Zealand. On the 1973 Heatway Rally we covered 3500 miles in six days in our Mini against some of the world’s finest.

6. While we were growing up in New Zealand, my dad gave each of us a truck he had made. I got mine at the age of four or five. It reminds me of the 1950s, when you didn’t go out and buy the latest toy.

7. While seated in the cockpit of Concorde on a flight from London to New York during my publishing years, I received this pen as a gift from British Airways. It now symbolises my work with the Museum and 14 years with the Concorde project. I still use it every day to write letters.

8. These binoculars come with me to every race meeting where I am a marshal and MSA driving standards observer. Their age and wonderfully precise adjustments make them incredibly satisfying to use.

9. In 1989, for the 40th anniversary of the Comet’s first flight, I piloted XS235, which would be the last Comet to fly. I ended up getting changed onboard and flying it in a dinner jacket because I was running late for a function at the Savoy. This model of that aeroplane sits on my study window sill and reminds me of the fun we had.

10. After emigrating to New Zealand in 1905, my engineer grandfather patented a mechanical shovel of great mechanical simplicity. This model, always around our home, triggered my love of engineering.