It was no whimsical decision that placed Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley, at the wheel of 2311221 in April 1934.

The 32 year-old Ridley had succeeded to the peerage at the age of fourteen in 1916, upon the death of his father.

He married Ursula, daughter of Sir Edwin Lutyens, in 1926 and took seriously the management of the family seat and surrounding estate, Blagdon Hall, in Northumberland.

His passion was however for fast motor cars and motor sport and he was in the privileged position of being able to indulge his passions to the full.

2311221 was just one of many cars that enabled him to do that – but a car that remained in his ownership from new until his death in 1964.

Geographically, Brooklands Circuit was some 330 miles from the famous South Gates of the Blagdon Hall Estate (noted landmarks beside the old A1 Road north of Newcastle, with the gate posts surmounted with white cattle), but this did not curb the Viscount's enthusiasm.

Frustrated that neither Austin n...