18 replies to this topic

[Graham Gauld]

I am sorry to say that Peter Westbury former British Hill Climb driver and grand prix driver has died peacefully at his home in Tobago, he was 76.

He was a gifted engineer who produced a number of different Felday cars. The photo shows his four wheel drive Felday-Daimler hill climb car in action.  He is remembered for giving his Felday sports car to Jim Clark to race and he also raced a Brabham BT30 in the Formula 2 class in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1969 and practiced for the 1970 US Grand Prix with BRM but did not qualify.

He was an active member of the Grand Prix Drivers Club and will be missed by those of us who spent time with him. 

Condolences to his wife Jenny.

 

http://postimg.cc/image/5qooyxrdp/

[Stephen W]

Sad news indeed. I remember Peter from his F3 days as well as hillclimbing and was glad to meet up with him at Harewood when he drove the P99 and the Felday-Daimler at Harewood's anniversary meeting.

[GMiranda]

RIP.... Isaw today on facebook, he was a contact of mine; and I managed to contact him some time ago. It's really sad.

[pete53]

I am sorry to hear the news. A little bit of arithmetic tells us that he was only a young man in his early twenties when he was already doing some very clever stuff in the early/mid 1960s. I particularly remember seeing him drive in F3 around 1967-1968 (which he seemed to adapt to pretty quickly for one who was more known for his hill-climbing prowess), and also the Felday BRM 4wd sports car that Mac Daghorn mainly drove.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Generous with his time helping me, a complete stranger, unravel the mystery of two Brabham BT36s both with the same chassis number.
Thank you.

[jj2728]

RIP

[RTH]

Peter Windsor has done a piece about Peter Westbury here today

 

http://peterwindsor.com/

[Lola5000]

Peter's Brabham BT30 raced in Australia in the 80s in Group O historics,until it was decided by CAMS to ban wings on group O cars and the then owner sold the car in disgust overseas ,not wishing to run a car that in the period always raced with wings ..go figure.

[Nanni Dietrich]

Vale, bearded champion!

I've seen him at Vallelunga, final race of the 1969 European F2 Championship, impressive 2nd overall with his FIRST Racing Brabham BT30 (painted blue and white, if I remember well), behind Johnny Servoz-Gavin's works Matra. Great drive.

[Doug Nye]

Very sorry to hear of Peter's passing.  One of the first racing workshops I visited after joining 'Motor Racing' magazine in 1963 was the Westbury one at Holmbury St Mary in the Surrey hills.  A couple of years later I noticed a moss and sap-covered old hulk rotting away in the bushes just outside - one of the Lola-Ford Mk 6 GTs left over from the Ford GT programme and abandoned there.  He was also, of course - very briefly - a sometime BRM Formula 1 driver.  Like most motor sportsmen who began their serious careers in hill-climbing, always very pleasant...a good guy.  I was delighted to help salvage the remains of his 4WD Felday-BRM (ex-Mac Daghorn, ex-Jim Clark) sports car within recent years and to search out a rescuer for it...

 

Most sincere condolences to his family and friends...

 

DCN

[Sharman]

I first met him at a CUAC sprint in 59 or 60 with a 4wd something or other. Was he still in education or had he actually begun a commercial enterprise at that time? Sad to hear of his death.

[Tim Murray]

The (sadly rather limited) 'potted history' page on Peter's website says that he was in full-time education until 1961, when he left Northampton College in Islington having studied for a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (it doesn't say whether he actually graduated):

http://www.peterwest...com/history.htm

RIP Peter.

Edited by Tim Murray, 11 December 2015 - 22:43.

[Sharman]

Thinking about it, I begin to suspect that it was not a 4wd something or other but a 1.5 Cooper.

 

 

 

typo edit

Edited by Sharman, 12 December 2015 - 09:24.

[Rupertlt1]

See: https://revslib.stan...atch=all&utf8=✓

 

Update: https://library.revs...eter Westbury/1

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 26 May 2022 - 11:29.

[Sharman]

That must have been the year after I first met him but I do remember that car. He must have replaced the Climax between the meetings.

[sstiel]

Peter Westbury was born on this day in 1938.

Sorry if I'm wrong but did he have a website which he set up? I think I saw it in the years before he died.

[Tim Murray]

He did - see the link I posted a few posts above - but the site now seems to be defunct.

[Vitesse2]

Looks like it never got very far. The Wayback Machine's last snapshot is from 2016 and it seems only that very basic page existed even then: https://web.archive....com/history.htm

[sstiel]

Looks like it never got very far. The Wayback Machine's last snapshot is from 2016 and it seems only that very basic page existed even then: https://web.archive....com/history.htm

Thanks for finding it. It was interesting.