Roy Salvadori - Telegraph During what is now called "the Golden Age of motorsport," photographs of the tall, good-looking Salvadori often featured in the sports pages of the national press, his Italian surname lending an exotic, continental aura to a talent that was nurtured in Essex. Many considered it unfortunate that he never won a Grand Prix, though he started 47 races in the 1950s. His best year on the circuit was 1958, when he was runner up in the German Grand Prix, third in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and fourth in the overall drivers" championship. His failure to win a Formula 1 race was largely down to bad luck. Driving for the Yeoman Credit team in the 1961 US Grand Prix, he was gaining on the leading Lotus in the closing stages when his engine failed. A good all-rounder, Salvadori had better luck in sports cars. In 1959 he made it into the record books by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, teamed with the American sports car-builder Carroll Shelby, driving an Aston Martin DBR1. Roy Francesco Salvadori was born on May 12 1922 at Dovercourt in Essex to parents of Italian extraction. After leaving school he joined his father's refrigeration business before starting out on his own as a car dealer in London and later in Surrey. His first sports car was a 2.9 litre Alfa Romeo P3, said to have been owned by the Italian pre-war star Tazio Nuvolari. In 1947 Salvadori entered it in the Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay, Belgium, and, though the car got stuck in top gear, finished fifth. In 1949, he wrote off a Maserati at the Curragh track in Ireland, and in 1951 he had a serious accident in a Frazer-Nash at Silverstone. In 1955, driving a Maserati 250F for Sidney Greene's Gilby Engineering team, he won the Glover Trophy at Goodwood, the Daily Telegraph Trophy at Aintree, and was runner-up for the Daily Express Trophy at Silverstone. Salvadori made his Formula 1 debut in 1952 and competed until 1962, racing for many different teams. In 1957 he signed with the BRM team, but after failing to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix, decided to concentrate on racing Aston Martin sports cars and Cooper F2 cars. It was when Cooper started to run "oversized" two-litre F2 cars in F1 races that, in 1958, Salvadori had his best Formula 1 season. Following his success at Le Mans, in 1960 Salvadori returned to the 24 hour race in another Aston Martin DBR1, alongside Jimmy Clark, finishing a good third behind two Ferraris. A bad crash at 130mph in Australia led him to retire from Formula 1 in 1962. But he continued to race sports and touring cars until 1965, when he retired from competition driving. Salvadori then became involved in the original Ford GT40 programme, though when the early car proved unstable at high speeds he left the programme, refusing to take a fee. In 1966 and 1967 he managed the Cooper F1 team. After that he returned to the motor business before retiring to Monte Carlo, where his flat overlooking the Grand Prix finishing straight became a venue for glamorous Grand Prix parties. Roy Salvadori is survived by his wife, Susan, whose father Johnny Hindmarsh won the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans with Luis Fontes in a Lagonda M45, but lost his life when he crashed an RAF Hawker Hurricane during a test flight in 1938. Roy Salvadori, born May 12 1922, died June 3 2012