CAFÉ RACER 76: Off-track antics: James Hunt's road cars

These days, you expect to see F1 drivers on the road in supercars. James Hunt, however, was an eccentric – not to mention the fact that money was often tight, so his road cars were an eclectic bunch of oddities...

Take the Austin A35 van that the World Champion famously drove around Wandsworth in South London (he said he loved to overtake Ferraris through the Wandsworth roundabout at night, in the wet), ideal for transporting his budgerigars to shows. And while his bright yellow Porsche 911 3.0 RS was a more traditional choice for an F1 driver, his huge Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 saloon was hardly the nimble sports car you might expect, especially when it spent most of the time raised on bricks outside Hunt’s house – the result of financial hardship.

If you fancy following in the footsteps of this unconventional motorsport hero, you might want to start by acquiring a car from our selection below. As well as the models already mentioned, we’ve thrown in a rather nice 1967 Mini in honour of Hunt’s attempts to prepare and race one himself that year – albeit not very successfully (it was turned away at Snetterton scrutineering due to the fact that it had no windscreen or side windows). And if you’re wondering why there’s a Rolls-Royce Corniche in the mix, it’s because we love the stories of the Hesketh team rolling up at race meetings in such a car, drinking champagne and generally having fun. As well as winning the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix, of course.