David Purley Tribute and Bio

1974 Team Harper David Purley and Dieter Quester

1970F3

David Debuts the Lec at the '77 Brands Hatch Race of Champions


many thanks to David from https://www.facebook.com/groups/172580376130046/

From Donington museum

1972 Victory Race


Memories of fans:
As a funny coindicidence, David Purley did not only drive the cars mentioned before, but also the Connew! I believe it was the Race of Champions, but it certainly was at Brands Hatch. There is a story to it also, since it was a very bad weekend for Purley. First he found a screwdriver lying around in the cockpit during qualifying, and on a practise run he ripped off his visor and the gear lever by mistake on one run. Purley had experienced a stuck throttle on his March once, and demanded a engine-kill-switch on the Connew (since there wasn'r any). The team made one, and put it on the steering wheel. On the warm-up lap for the race, in a tight corner, one of the wires loosened and the switch worked quite adequately. The engine stopped, and a DNS for David.

Memories of fans:
In 1975 I attended the Thruxton Easter Monday meeting where the main event was a formula 5000 race. David Purley ran has car with a 3.4 litre Ford GAA V6 (See Group 2 Capri) against the 5-litre opposition. I remember him being impressed by an air race which the organisers put on for the spectators. This I think led him to stunt flying later in life. Anyway David finished in the top three (Don't recall his exact position) which, all things considered, was pretty good. Particularly when (as I recall) he was racing with his broken left leg in plaster!

New re-scan pre-scan? photo of David Purley 1972 Race Victory /thanks to Butcher/

Monaco 1970 copyright Ric O'Reilly from Facebook