Colin Davis

The Targa Florio was one of the classic sports car events and in 1964, Colin Davis became one of only seven British drivers (the others were Cyril Snipe, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Graham Hill, Vic Elford and Brian Redman) to win the trophy. He was not as well known as he deserved to be, due to spending most of his career living and racing in Italy plus he retired from the sport while in his 30s, dismayed by the frequency of fatal accidents on the track.

Colin Charles Houghton Davis was born in July 1933, in Marylebone, London, and was the son of journalist and ’Bentley Boy’ SCH Davis, one of the most prominent British drivers of the 1920s, who had won at Le Mans in 1927. Colin stated “SCH was a ‘Bentley Boy’. Not one of the millionaires though! He’d known WO since World War 1 when SCH was Admiralty Inspector (He’d been partly gassed in trenches and sent back to ‘Blimey’ with RNAS job) while WO was designing BR2 Rotary.”

While working as an advertising executive, he followed in his father’s footsteps and began racing in 1954, finishing nineteenth in a privately entered DB HBR Panhard at the Sebring 12 hours with Ken Heavlin in March. In August he raced a 500cc Cooper-Norton at Silverstone’s Commander Yorke Trophy meeting and took second and third place finishes and this was followed a few weeks later with third place at Brands Hatch. In the September he and Horace Gould raced a Gilby Engineering Maserati A6GCS in the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod though they retired due to gearbox issues after 60 laps.

He became a regular with his Cooper during 1955 and 1956 and in the first year he took a strong third place finish in the Earl of March Trophy (to Ivor Bueb and Don Parker). There were retirements from the 50 mile Daily Express International and at Aintree (after losing a wheel) though he was sixth in the Redex Trophy at Crystal Palace. There was another win at the Senior Final at Brands Hatch plus sixth in a later Daily Telegraph Trophy race at the circuit at the start of August. Colin also undertook a brief tour of Sweden, where he retired from the Swedish GP though had a fine second place to Ken Tyrrell at Karlskoga. Back in England, in loaned drives in Francis Beart’s modified Cooper at Oulton Park he came home second in the Gold Cup then was third at Castle Combe in October and later won his heat at the Yuletide Trophy. Continuing into 1956 with the Beart Cooper he had second place finishes in the Earl of March Trophy (to Ivor Bueb’s Ecurie Demi-Litre Mk IX), the International Trophy at Silverstone (to Jim Russell, after a hard fought battle with Bueb) plus third at Goodwood. He did not finish at Oulton Park, Goodwood and the British GP meeting and he was only eighth in the Midsummer 100 at Aintree in late June though his best result came with a victory at Aintree in April, ahead of Stuart Lewis-Evans and Ivor Bueb. He raced an Austin Healey 100 to eighth place with Raymond Flower at the Reims 12 Hours plus was seventh in one outing with C.T.Atkin’s Connaught A Type at the Goodwood Trophy.

After moving to Italy in 1957, he established a relationship with the Maserati brothers, who had sold their Modena-based team and were then based in Bologna producing OSCA (Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili) sports cars. In two races with an Osca S750 Colin won in late September at Syracuse and in early December he was second at Vallelunga. He also competed in September’s non-championship Modena GP with a Maserati 250F (loaned by Horace Gould), though did not finish. In earlier races, he was fifth in June at the GP des Frontieres at Chimay with a privately entered Lotus 11 Climax though he retired from July’s 12 Hour Reims in a solo drive in a Triumph TR3.

A year later he and Alejandro de Tomaso were second in an OSCA S1500 in the 10 Hours of Messina plus received the Index of Performance award at Le Mans after finishing eleventh. Following the award, there was a memorable drive to Paris in De Tomaso’s Alfa with Colin recounting “we were given our prize money there and then at the end of the race, but had to go to Paris to get permission to take it out the country. I sat in the back of the Alfa with a suitcase full of money and Alessandro and his girlfriend were in the front. Halfway along the journey the couple started an argument which ended in the passenger hitting the driver in the face as the car drifted into the face of the oncoming traffic at a closing speed of around 200mph. I thought to myself, as I clutched the case full of four million francs, here you are in the back of a car with some money for the first time in our career, and you are going to be killed by this crazy pair.” He and de Tomaso retired at the Targa Florio and were scheduled to enter the Tourist Trophy but did not attend while in solo outings with an OSCA S1500 that year he won April’s Coppa Shell event at Monza and was fourteenth in September at the non-championship GP Berlin at Avus.

In 1959 he contested Italian and French FJunior events with a Taraschi-Fiat and in April was third and fourth at Vallelunga and Monza and in May won at the Posillipo circuit at Napoli, plus recorded the fastest lap. He won at French rounds at Pau and Albi (plus took the fastest lap) though his two final outings in Italian races ended in retirement at Vallelunga in October then at Syracuse in November. In further drives alongside Alejandro de Tomaso, they retired an Osca F2 at the 1000km Nurburgring while their Le Mans 24 Hours race with a D.B.Barquette Panhard ended on lap 63 due to gearbox issues. He returned to the Targa Florio, this time teamed with Dario Sepe and Mario Sannino, and finished sixth in a Scuderia Sant Ambroeus Alfa Romeo Giuliletta Veloce Zagato. In a privately entered Porsche RSK drive he was ninth at a Coupe de Vitesse F2 race at Reims plus in late August won the non-championship GP Messina in a Cooper T49 Monaco (beating Giulio Cabianca and Lodovico Scarfiotti). Colin’s two World Championship Grands Prix entries came in this year, racing a Scuderia Centro Sud team Cooper-Maserati in the French and Italian Grands Prix, where he retired at Reims after seven laps due to an oil leak and after starting eighteenth at Monza he finished eleventh in an outclassed car.

There were a variety of machines raced during 1960 though it would be a very successful period with five victories. Starting with a Scuderia Serenissima Cooper Monaco at the Gran Premio Libertad in Cuba at the end of February, Colin was fifth (to S.Moss, P.Rodriguez, M.Gregory and H.von Hanstein). Following this came a drive with a Fiat Abarth Zagato RM and he and Mario Poltronieiri were third (with the top five finishers all in similar Zagato models) at the Coppa Ascari at Monza at the beginning of May and in the following week he was back in the Cooper Monaco for the Targa Florio though he and Raffaele Cammarota did not finish. Away from single seaters, in June he was eighth with a Scuderia Serenissima Ferrari 250 GT alongside Carlo Maria Abate at the 1000km Nurburgring. There was a trip to Britain in August to race a privately entered Ferrari 250 GTO at the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, where he was sixth, then the following month he and Giancarlo Castellina were in a Scuderia Ambroeus entered 250 GT for a 500km Nurburgring race though did not start. A switch to a Scuderia Serenissima OSCA-Fiat for FJunior brought a remarkable run during the summer though he started with twelfth at Monaco, seventh at Monza (and fastest lap), plus two consecutive fourth place results at Casello (plus fastest lap) and Albi. Within a few weeks he took three victories, at the Gran Premio della Lotteria di Monza in June (plus recorded the fastest lap), at Salerno in July and the following week at the Messina GP (plus fastest lap) ahead of Denny Hulme’s Cooper T52 BMC and Lorenzo Bandini’s Stanguellini Fiat. August saw seventh place at Pescara and a victory from pole at Calabria (plus fastest lap) then in October he was second at Modena. He rounded off his season with a win at the Coppa de Oro di Sicilia in Syracuse, the final race that year, giving him victory in the all-comers Italian championship ahead of drivers including Denny Hulme, Lorenzo Bandini and Giancarlo Baghetti.

The year had seen the start of his involvement with Count Volpi and Serenissima, an association which would continue until 1962. Giovanni Volpi had inherited money from his father, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, a politician financier and founder of the renowned Venice Film Festival. A keen racing fan, Giovanni eventually formed Scuderia Serenissima and Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia, which contested sports car racing and F1 in the early 1960s. During 1961, Scuderia Serenissima entered a Cooper T51 in the F1 World Championship for Maurice Trintignant at Monaco, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy plus also fielded a de Tomaso in France for Giorgio Scarlatti and for Nino Vaccarella in Italy. In three races the following year as Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia, they entered a Lotus at Monaco and Italy plus a Porsche in Germany for Nino Vaccarella. They were one of Ferrari’s best customers but Volpi angered Enzo Ferrari after helping finance the ATS team (which had been formed by former Ferrari employees) so he refused to sell cars to Serenissima which forced Volpi to start looking for alternate sources for his team cars. Volpi had a 250GTO on order for Scuderia Serenissima Republica di Venezia (SSR) but this was cancelled by Ferrari so Volpi decided to commission Bizzarini to design him a car. Volpi already owned Olivier Gendebien’s 250 GTO SWB ‘Competizione’ (in which he had finished second in 1961’s Tour de France) and then sold to Volpi shortly afterwards so used this as a donor car. Bizzarrini and car body specialist Piero Drogo developed an aerodynamically advanced body, with the resulting car’s appearance leading to the French press nicknaming it ‘La Camionnette’ (little truck) and the English-speaking journalists calling it the ‘Breadvan’. The ‘Breadvan’ Ferrari made its competition debut at Le Mans in 1962 though a driveshaft failure ended its race.

Colin started 1961 with second place in an Italian FJunior race at Salo in early April, driving a privately entered Taraschi-Fiat, but did not qualify an OSCA for Monza’s Gran Premio della Lotteria. His two following Junior outings came with the Fitzwilliam Racing Team’s Lola Mk3 where he retired at Messina and was eleventh at Pergusa. He and Robert Jenny retired a Fiat Abarth 1000 Zagato at the Coppa Ascari FIA GT Cup race at Monza while racing alongside Carlo Maria Abate in a return to the cockpit of a Ferrari, they finished fourth with Scuderia Serenissima’s 250 GT at the 1000km Nurburgring and later were fifth at the 1000km Paris. In outings with OSCAs, he was fifth with a private S1600 at the 4 Hour Pescara though in shared drives he and Lodovico Scarfiotti retired their S1500 at the Targa Florio and his Le Mans 24 Hours with Jean Laroche in an S750 ended after 85 laps due to engine problems.

There were a number of drives with Scuderia SSS R.di Venezia in sports cars and FJunior in 1962. In shared Ferrari drives he and Fernand Tavano retired a 250 GT at the 12 Hour Sebring after 119 laps due to engine problems while gearbox issues after 30 laps ended his Le Mans race alongside Carlo Mario Abate. A final outing with the 250 GT came in October at the 1000km Paris and he and Lodovico Scarfiotti took third place, behind the Rodriguez brothers’ NART Ferrari 250 GTO and the Mike Parkes/John Surtees Maranello Concessionaires 250 GTO.

Colin made infrequent visits to British circuits though he contested two events in 1962, one of which came with a solo drive in a 250 GTO at the Guards trophy at Brands Hatch though he did not finish due to an accident. The other event saw his one only outing in an F1 car in Britain, racing a Lotus 18-Climax at Mallory Park’s International 2000 Guineas in June where he was seventh amid a high-class field. Contesting FJunior, he retired a De Sanctis at Pergusa though was second with it at Caserta but retired the team’s Gemini Mk4 at the Coupe de Vitesse at Reims and did not qualify for the Monaco race.

The following year was a quiet period and he only competed at the Monza Lotteria where he came home second in a privately entered Wainer Ford. He became a Porsche System Engineering works driver in 1964 and there were a number of Porsche 904 drives, though there were retirements alongside Edgar Barth at the 1000km Nurburgring and 12 Hour Reims and his Le Mans 24 Hours race with Gerhard Mitter ended due to clutch problems after 244 laps. He and Edgar Barth were third at the 1000km Paris but a highlight was a notable victory at the Targa Florio with Antonio Pucci and Colin became one of only seven British racing drivers (including Cyril Snipe, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Graham Hill, Vic Elford and Brian Redman), to win the race.

Continuing with the 904 in 1965, the Targa Florio with Gerhard Mitter produced a second place finish, to Nino Vaccarella/Lorenzo Bandini’s Ferrari 275 P2 and ahead of 904s driven by Umberto Maglioli/Herbert Linge and Jo Bonnier/Graham Hill. The pair were ninth at the Nurburgring 1000km but retired after 20 laps due to clutch problems at Le Mans. August saw a non-championship Mediterranean GP at Pergusa with a Scuderia Nord Ouest Lotus 18 though he did not qualify.

Piloting a Porsche 906 for the following season, Colin started in April at the Monza 1000km where he and Dieter Glemser finished seventh. Shortly after this he was back tackling Sicily’s mountain roads for the Targa Florio but though he and Gunther Klass started on pole they later struggled with accident damage and finished forty second. However he achieved his best overall result at Le Mans when he and Jo Siffert’s two-litre Porsche 906 finished fourth (and first in class) behind three seven-litre Ford GT40s driven by Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon, Denny Hulme/Ken Miles and Dick Hutcherson/Ronnie Bucknum. His final race that year was in October’s Paris 1000km in a Porsche GB entered car but it ended in retirement for him and Mike De Udy.

1967 would be his final season and in two Porsche drives he and Roy Pike retired a 906 due to mechanical issues at the Spa 1000km and the Targa Florio alongside Gerhard Mitter in a 910 ended due to an accident. His final start occurred in the Circuito del Mugello road race, sharing an Alfa Romeo T33 with Spartaco Dini, but they retired on lap 3 of the 8 lap event.

Despite his top-level career, at the age of 34, Colin suddenly decided to quit racing following the deaths of many of his former team mates. Nine years later, he emigrated to South Africa with his wife Eva and their daughter Francesca, where he worked as a radio broadcaster. Looking back on his racing and some of the circuits driven, he recalled “I have happy memories of Aintree. As far as I can remember the 1955 F3 race brought with it a slight mishap to my Cooper. A when came off! But fortunately it didn’t hit anyone and the car slithered to a stop just off the track with no harm done. The next year, ’56 I happened to win the F3 race..largely because Jim Russell made one of his very rare mistakes. I happened to like the Aintree circuit…One smiles wistfully about the demise of the ‘Targa’ but who could make a 72km circuit reasonably secure for spectators and drivers? And the same, almost, for the old Nurburgring 22kms.” He also told of the very first time he wore fireproof overalls, which were “a present from Dunlops..a type 63 3 litre 12 cyl Maserati had its fuel pipe come loose and the whole thing went up like a hand grenade. Testing at Monza just before Nurburgring 1000K. As it was getting too hot I had to bale out on the road while aiming the car at the hedge (opposite pits) at a fine angle to slow car until the last moment. Car burned out completely.”

Colin sadly passed away after a long illness at his home in Oranjezicht, South Africa, on the 19th December 2012.