On the 22nd of January 1959, only months into his retirement, world famous racing driver Mike Hawthorn died on the A3 Guildford bypass while driving his comprehensively-modified 1958 Jaguar 3.4-litre saloon. There is still speculation into his death.
Mike Hawthorn: Tragic Accident or Fatal Road Racing?
Mike Hawthorn had only 60 hours to live when a club dinner at the National Sporting Club was held in his honour, dubbed ‘The Gay Cavalier’ of motor racing, he lost control of his MKI Jaguar on the Guildford bypass - hitting a lorry, mounting the embankment and finally hitting a tree at high speed. At only 29 years old, Mike Hawthorn was dead.
Shooting to global fame as Britain’s first Formula One World Champion in 1958, driving a Ferrari Dino 246 and clinching the title during the Moroccan Grand Prix at Ain-Diab near Casablanca, Hawthorn immediately announced his retirement - badly marred by the death of his close friend Stuart Lewis-Evans; succumbing to injuries sustained during an accident on the German Grand Prix track that season.
Mike appeared to be a fan of Jaguar’s offerings and besides owning at least one XK140, Jaguar loaned Hawthorn a MK1 during his tenure racing for the company - allowing him to continue using it afterwards. The 806th right hand drive 3.4 saloon produced, it donned a rather fetching British Racing Green exterior paired with a suede green interior. No special remarks were recorded in Jaguar’s chassis record book, but modifications are unlikely to have been carried out without Jaguars approval.
A now rather spooky road test of Hawthorn’s Jaguar appeared in a magazine shortly before the accident; stating that the Jaguar held ‘tremendous acceleration’ with a maximum speed in ‘excess of 120mph’. Mike had actually seen over 130mph with his MK1, however at these speeds the car was ‘a little unstable…perhaps due to the undulating road surface’.
The fatal crash occurred on a notoriously dangerous section of the road, the A3 Guildford bypass, where 15 serious accidents - two of them fatal- had occurred during the previous two years. The road was wet at the time, with witnesses claiming the Jaguar overtook a Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘gull-wing’ driven by Rob Walker - the motor racing team manager - in excess of 80mph.
Upon entering a right-hand bend Hawthorn clipped a bollard dividing two carriage ways, brushed an oncoming lorry before hitting and uprooting a roadside tree; suffering substantial head injuries and being catapulted into the back seats.
Several theories have been put forward for this tragedy, the most accepted being that Rob Walker and Mike Hawthorn were racing at the time of the crash. This is fuelled by Walkers constant refusal to estimate his speed during the time of the crash when questioned at the coroner’s inquest.
Other possible explanations include driver error over the difficult section of road, a blackout or a mechanical failure. Upon inspection of the 3.4 MKI there was no evidence of any mechanical failures, however Hawthorn had already lost a kidney due to infection and had started suffering problems with his other - he was expected to live only three further years.
Further evidence of racing the Mercedes appeared during an interview in 1988, interviewed by motor racing driver Eoin Young and writer Eric Dymock, Walker admitted he had indeed been racing Hawthorn in his green Jaguar but had been advised not to make further comment by a police officer, as it would incriminate him.
A final conclusion can perhaps be reached with this unnerving quote:
‘I interviewed the driver from the Tourist Trophy Garage shortly after the accident. He confessed to me that he hated driving the car as it had spun on him twice before Michael’s fatal crash. In his opinion the power generated was too much for the tyres to absorb’.
The registration plate of VDU 881 will never be reissued by the DVLA for those eager to snap up a historic licence plate - the policy states that licence plates on cars that have been destroyed are never reissued.