Car CultureMembers OnlyMotorsport & RacingSpecial Feature

Firestone My Sportscar Memories

Steve Natale
Nigel Bennett
Nigel Bennett

The UK branch of Firestone Racing Division was formed because the U.S. factory had been supplying racing tires to Ferrari and Lotus in Formula One, as well as some sports car teams and private owners in Europe, and obviously the cost of shipping large quantities of tires to Europe every week became unsustainable. So the English factory was ordered to set up a racing tire manufacturing facility alongside road car production, and Bob Martin was sent over to run it.

I was soon put in charge of the sports car section, as opposed to Formula One, Formula Two and Touring cars, all of which had specific tires designed for them, varying in size, compound and construction. Under contract in sports cars were Ferrari, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, David Piper with his private Ferrari, Paul Hawkins and the John Wyer Ford team, as well as several private owners. I also attended some F1 races when the calendar allowed.

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