“I could have been Lewis Hamilton”
26 September 2007 With a glittering career spanning touring cars to Formula 1, motoring legend Tiff Needell has driven the world’s most exotic cars and entertained millions as a television presenter on both Top Gear and Fifth Gear. Vijay Pattni catches up with the automotive legend on his childhood hero, attack skydiving, and how he nearly missed out on racing. “I was dragged to Goodwood as a kid by my Dad to watch Stirling Moss and Michael Hawthorn,” says Tiff. “I crept to the back and clung to the railings and it became my dream to be a racing driver.” So who was man who inspired Tiff to achieve the motorsport passion ignited within? “Jim Clarke was the big hero – that was my era,” says Tiff. “He was the ultimate racing driver: a gentleman, a fantastic natural talent, and the one who really inspired me to become a racing driver”. But it almost never happened for the 55-year-old star of Channel 5’s Fifth Gear. “I was never going to be a racing driver – I went to university to become a civil engineer.” But racing was always in his blood, as he recounts his first trials with motorsport. “I spent my own money going down to the racing school at Brands Hatch when I was 17,” says Tiff. “I borrowed my Mum’s Morris 1000 Traveller.” Fate, it seems, was on Tiff’s side. At 19, he entered a magazine competition to win a racing car – a Lotus 69 FF. “Amazingly I won, so I was then a civil engineer five days a week and a mechanic five nights a week,” says Tiff. “For six years everything was spent on my motor racing as an amateur at the weekends.” Dedicating every waking minute to becoming a world-class racing driver eventually paid off. Scrolling through his automotive career reads off like a childhood dream, from his early beginnings in Formula Ford, through Formula 3 and the British Formula 1, to racing in the 1980 Grand Prix. “I’m unluckier than a few, but luckier than millions,” says Tiff. “I was the most promising young British driver of 1976. I was the Lewis Hamilton of 1976!” So what does Tiff think of today’s crop of racing drivers? “Lewis Hamilton is a fantastic talent, along with [Fernando] Alonso and [Kimi] Raikkonen. [Jenson] Button is brilliant as well. There’s even talk now of Alonso being kicked out of McLaren and Button taking his place which would be fantastic.” “I think Jenson is as good as Lewis Hamilton,” says Tiff. “I feel sorry for him because everyone feels they have to knock him because he went to a party once. People on the outside love to knock these stars!” So what was it like when he was racing? “I just get bad luck and things go wrong. I never think it’s funny.” Tiff jokes about his infamous run-in with Nigel Mansell at 1993’s TOCA race at Donington Park. “Nigel Mansell blames me for his accident when it was all his fault!” But racetrack spats aren’t the only quandaries that rile Mr Needell. “It’s obsessions – obsessions with speed cameras and obsessions with road humps, obsessions even with CO2 emissions!” On the subject of CO2, Tiff spent last week promoting the International Car Free Day to encourage motorists to consider the environment. “It’s just to give them a little nudge. The idea of carbon offsetting is a global thing and it gives more choice to the motorist to help offset their carbon emissions. I want people to enjoy their motoring”. And what car does Tiff particularly enjoy motoring in? “The McLaren F1 supercar is still the one car I’d really love, even over the Bugatti Veyron. Given the choice, I’d still have the McLaren F1 funnily enough.” “The Veyron is a magnificent piece of machinery but hasn’t quite got the soul. In the McLaren you’re totally in control with no traction control and no paddle shift gearbox – it’s a proper car for proper drivers.” So after racing the world’s finest sportscars and reviewing them for television, what does the petrol head still have on his to-do list? “I thought I wanted to go parachuting but I’m going off the idea now,” says Tiff. “Attack skydiving lingers in the back of my brain occasionally but then it soon goes away when I think about it – although you are on someone else’s back, it’s your legs that hit the ground first and that is what keeps haunting me – the thought of a broken ankle!” “I also want to go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!” Auto Trader links Auto Trader TV show presenters Mike Brewer and Edd China
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