24 Aug 01
In a wet and windy day in January 1959, world champion racing driver Mike Hawthorn crashed his Jaguar in a fatal accident that has never been fully explained. Driving his modified 3.4 saloon along the infamous A3 Hoggs Back near Guildford, Hawthorn encountered his friend Rob Walker driving his 300SL, registered ROB 2. An impromptu race ensued as the cars accelerated down the rain-soaked hill together at up to 100 mph. Hawthorn overtook the Mercedes in a left-hand curve as they passed John Coombes' garage and then, going into the right-hander that followed, the Jaguar suddenly started to slide, spun, and then careered backwards across the carriageway, disappearing from Walker's view. It then clipped a traffic island and a truck before coming to rest wrapped around a tree as it disappeared in a cloud of mud and water. The car was almost split in two and Hawthorn died after a couple of minutes as a result of a fractured skull.
There has been much speculation about the cause of the crash. Some said Hawthorn, who had kidney problems and would not have made old bones, had suffered a blackout. Others that the car's diff had locked up, that a brake had seized on or that some part of an alleged non-standard hand throttle had failed and allowed the engine to over-speed. But the mystery has never been solved.
