PAST IMPERFECT:Winner of the 1931 Le Mans 24-Hour race, Lord Howe is one of motoring's forgotten early heroes
IN 1932, the famous British racing driver Tim Birkin commented: "If the ship of State were a car, then Lord Howe would have been Prime Minister long ago. . . he brings to any subject with which cars are remotely concerned an application that nothing will deter."
Birkin's description was particularly fitting, for Lord Howe brought a keenness to his motoring interests unparalleled by any other.
Interested in cars from the time of the very birth of motoring, the future Lord Howe took a holiday job as a mechanic in a French garage in 1898 when he was just 14 years old and still a student at Eton.
Despite this great interest, he did not begin to race cars until 1928 when he was 44, an age at which most racing drivers were thinking of retirement.
Howe, who always wore a pale blue helmet and overalls, drove in his first major event, the 1928 Ulster TT, on the Ards circuit, where he had lapped all of the backmarkers in his Bugatti by the halfway stage when his fuel tank burst, forcing his retirement from the event.
The Ulster TT remained one of his favourite events and he returned in 1930, driving the ex-Caracciola Mercedes fitted with a special lightweight body.
In 1931 he drove his new 8C2300 Alfa Romeo, but crashed over a bank into a ploughed field while chasing his team-mate Giuseppe Campari, who had just overtaken him.
In 1931 he also took a well-earned victory at Le Mans with Tim Birkin. However, later that year he survived a massive shunt at Monza in a Delage he had purchased from Malcolm Campbell.
Entering a bend at top speed, Howe suddenly found the road blocked by three slower cars, braked hard and spun off the road backwards into the trees. It was later discovered that the brake servo had jammed, leaving all four wheels locked. The car turned on its side before hitting a tree.
Incredibly Howe, still in the cockpit holding the steering wheel survived with no more than bruises. The car, however, was wrapped around the tree - the front and rear wheels being only six inches apart.
In 1934 he came fourth in the Monaco Grand prix, an incredible result for an "amateur" beaten only by Nuvolari, Caracciola and Fagioli.
His success led Motormagazine to comment:
"He is incontestably to be classed among the world's greatest drivers, and may be ranked with the Continental champions whose names are household words."
He continued racing up until the outbreak of the second World War and in a one-hour run at Brooklands - in his Lagonda V-12 - averaged 101.5mph with a final lap of 108.27mph. Elected chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club on its formation in 1928 he was its president from 1929 until his death in 1964, while also serving as a vice-president of the CSI, the forerunner of today's FIA.
During the second World War Lord Howe served with distinction as Commodore RNVR, Atlantic Convoys and was highly influential in supporting motor racing in the House of Lords. He suffered a stroke in 1963, but carried on with his work until his death in July 1964.