MIKE HAWTHORN d1959. British F1 driver with Ferrari / Vanwall & BRM between 1952 and 1958. 47 races with 3 wins. Le Mans 24hour winner in 1955. The First British F1 World Champion driving a Ferrari Dino 246 in 1958 (with one win in France and five second places). He retired from F1 at the end of his Championship season. In earlier life he had lost a kidney to infection and began suffering problems with his remaining kidney in 1955. This was so serious he was at the time only expected to live a short number of years. However just a matter of months into his retirement (on 22nd January 1959) he died aged just 29 in a road accident on the A3 by-pass near Guildford driving his highly tuned British Racing Green Jaguar 3.4. What happened that day is still unknown. Suggested causes being ; driver error mechanical failure or blackout. The crash has been attributed to a combination of high speed bad weather and competitiveness. Rob Walker was ahead of him and perhaps Mike Hawthorn pushed his car too hard in an effort to pass Walker's Mercedes 300SL. Hawthorn's Jaguar (nicknamed "the Merceater") was heavily modified for high power and speed. "No Kraut car could overtake or out-accelerate ....." Hawthorn's Jaguar (these are the words in his biography "Challenge Me The Race"). A close relation of Hawthorn's had been killed in the war hence his dislike of Germans ..............

A very desirable original vintage KLM Airways cardstock in-flight menu (dated March 10th 1954) clearly signed on the rear cover in ink by ; Mike Hawthorn d1959 (Ferrari) / Luigi Musson d1958 (Maserati) / Umberto Maglioli d1999 (Ferrari) and Robert Manzon d2015 (Lancia) 

MIKE HAWTHORN d1959. British racing driver famously the F1 World Champion in 1958. 45 starts / 3 wins / 18 podiums. Ferrari / Vanwall / BRM / Cooper / Maserati 

LUIGI MUSSO d1958. Italian F1 racing driver. 24 starts / 1 win / 7 podiums. Ferrari & Maserati. He was reputedly deep in debt at the time of the lucrative 1958 French Grand Prix where he was fatally injured somersaulting into a ditch whilst chasing Mike Hawthorn 

UMBERTO MAGLIOLI d1999. Italian F1 racing driver with Ferrari / Maserati and Porsche. 10 starts / 2 podiums 

ROBERT MANZON d2015. French F1 racing driver with Gordini and Ferrari. 28 starts / 2 podiums

The autographs were obtained by the pilot Bill Wilkin on KLM Lockheed Flight L1049 / PH-TFV between New York-Amsterdam on March 10th 1954. There is a very detailed typed provenance letter from his son included. AFTAL Dealer No13 and UACC RD Memorabilia UK COA

ID:131823 (BOX)