Ultimately, you will drive it as fast as you can make it go but you might just take a lap or two longer to get down to a time in qualifying

The question I get asked most in life is hardly a surprising one. Millions of people in my position face an identical interrogation: ‘Darling, when are you going to finish fitting the bloody kitchen?’ The next most frequently asked question comes from an entirely different quarter – spectators at race meetings who ask: ‘How do you feel, racing a car worth millions?’

That apparently fair question isn’t quite as logical as it seems but it deserves a careful answer, as the truth might sound flippant or even arrogant. Frankly, the cash value is completely irrelevant. One million? Ten million? What difference does that make?

Many historic racing cars are worth over £1m and a surprising number are worth up to ten times that. Every season, growing numbers of well-known younger drivers graduate to historics and find themselves being asked how it feels to race such valuable cars. These drivers are beginning their graduation from modern machinery into historic motor racing. To put it another way, they’re getting older, they don’t want to stop racing and they discover that drives are available in old cars.

When asked that ‘ten million quid question’, what should they say? This is my policy: ‘Put it like this,’ I start, very politely. ‘One of the cars I race is worth maybe £30,000. If I wrote it off, it would cost the owner £40,000 or £50,000 to replace it. The arithmetic there isn’t so great, is it?’ Then I add: ‘The truth is, I try equally hard not to damage any of them. You just don’t think about cash values out on the track. Then they’re all just cars, to be approached in exactly the same way.’

That said, there is a subtle difference between racing some brand new machine as a professional and then, later in one’s career, racing an irreplaceable antique. I have thought about such things deeply over several decades. I’d been racing for over 20 years, in all sorts of expensive new cars, before being offered drives in multi-million pound historics.

That was around the late 1980s and, looking back, I think I did make a subconscious adjustment in my driving. These days I feel better able to express exactly what it’s all about. As a works driver you are expected to win in an arena packed with some pretty tough drivers. The odd accident, when you are pushing that hard all the time, is almost inevitable and, provided you’re quick, have a good excuse and it happens very rarely, you will be forgiven. A fresh machine will be wheeled out for your next race.

In historic cars, everyone still tries hard to win but there is a tacit understanding that, above all else, you will try even harder to bring the old thing back in one piece. In the back of your mind, it’s not the money that counts. It’s the history of that actual machine. Ultimately, you will drive it as fast as you can make it go but you might just take a lap or two longer to get down to a time in qualifying and, in tight spots in traffic, you should still be decisive but never ruthless.

The difference is so subtle, so very slight, but it is certainly there and, in my experience, it works. It was never my fault, naturally, but looking back over 42 years of racing I have had five heavy impacts in new cars and none in historics.

The past couple of decades, which have seen more motor racing than ever before, have produced growing numbers of modern aces, who filter eventually into the historic ranks. Some discover that they don’t fancy the old cars at all. Others, those who are simply hooked on driving powerful cars on the limit, are surprised to find the earlier machinery quite irresistible.

With countless wins behind them, these younger guys have firmly established personal reputations. Coming to terms with the idea that winning at all costs is no longer required can be tricky at first but I am constantly impressed by the grace that most of them show. Given enough time, too, they will find that the new cars they once raced have become priceless bits of history.

These younger drivers are all extremely quick but most appreciate rapidly that, with historics, it’s more about style. Those who attack it in the right spirit can carry on for decades, getting possibly the most enjoyable racing of their lives. The outstanding role model here is Sir Stirling Moss, Mr Motor Racing himself. He doesn’t need to prove anything.

TONY DRON

Having started his racing career in Formula Ford, Tony made a name for himself in 1970s Touring Cars and since then has raced an astonishing variety of sports and historic machinery. He is also a hugely respected journalist.