Lance Macklin

Lance Macklin. Copyright LAT Photographic (www.latphoto.co.uk), 2010. Used with permission.

Lance Macklin. Copyright LAT Photographic 2010. Used with permission.


02 Sep 1919
Kensington, London


29 Aug 2002
Tenterden, Kent


Great Britain

Grands Prix:

13 (1952-1955)

Worked as an exporter, living in Spain, until returning home when he developed a severe illness. Passed away, after a long fight against illness, in 2002, just days before his birthday. Son of Noel Macklin, who ran the Invicta sports car company, Lance naturally progressed to the sport, but he tried other sports first - at Eton, where he studied, he was a flyweight boxer, and then lived in Argentina to work as a gaucho on a hacienda, and played polo. When he returned to the UK, he ski-ied, and attempted to make the British Olympic team before both injury and WW2 intervened. Lance served in the Royal Navy in WW2, serving in a gunboat manufactured by his father. After World War 2, he became a partner in Chipstead Motors, buying and selling pre-war cars kept safe in barns during the hostilities. This led to him starting racing. A very capable driver, one of Britain's best between 1950-1955, his involvement - minor as it was - in the Le Mans disaster of 1955, plus a Tourist Trophy race in Dundrod later that year where he crashed to avoid an accident that two drivers died in, meant that Macklin quit the sport there and then. Also later worked in New Zealand.

Biography last updated 9 Sep 2014