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Tony Dron

August 29, 1946 - November 16, 2021

Tony Dron was a racing driver, motoring journalist and author. He was a racing contemporary and friend of James Hunt in Formula Ford before competing in saloon cars, sports cars, Porsche series and latterly historic racing cars. He won events in 24 makes and 41 models of car. The total number of wins is not known but is well into the hundreds. He wrote for Motor magazine, was editor of Classic Cars for 11 years and a Telegraph motoring contributor. He is survived by his wife Charis and children from previous marriages, Amy, William and Katy. With thanks to Jeff Bloxham for the image.

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Ian Young 2021-11-18 11:03:22 wrote:

I’ll never forget the day Tony Dron telephoned. I was a 21-year-old wannabe journalist willing to write about anything - even old cars - if it got me into the industry. He’d heard about me through a mutual friend of my father, and Dron - his cut-glass accent and deep, baritone voice coming down the line like a 1940s radio broadcast - made an instant impression. ‘I can offer you three days a week, £100 a day,’ he said slowly and deliberately, ‘and then we’ll just see how it goes. Sound fair?’ It felt more than fair, it felt like a divine summons from a world where the air was just that little bit sweeter. Over the next five years I spent a lot of time with Dron and I’m proud to consider him a mentor, even a father figure at times, although I’m pretty sure some of the advice he passed on would have made my own father wince with alarm. Above all, however, I was lucky enough to sit next to him in a variety of driving machines - from state-of-the-art race and rally cars to a 40ft canal barge - and I can categorically say that he was a man who had an affinity with the dimensions of space and time that was far beyond the understanding of most mortals. And such respect for those machines, too. Pure mechanical poetry. He often spoke of his admiration for the WW2 fighter pilots who defended this island during the long hot summer of 1940, and I recall he was moved to narrate onto tape ‘The Last Enemy’ (the story of burned fighter ace Richard Hilary). Dron was cut from the same cloth as these men, which is about the greatest accolade I can think of. Ian Young

Ian Young 2021-11-18 11:03:22 wrote: I’ll never forget the day Tony Dron telephoned. I was a 21-year-old wannabe journalist willing to write about anything - even old cars - if it got me into the industry. He’d heard about me through a mutual friend of my father, and Dron - his cut-glass accent and deep, baritone voice coming down the line like a 1940s radio broadcast - made an instant impression. ‘I can offer you three days a week, £100 a day,’ he said slowly and deliberately, ‘and then we’ll just see how it goes. Sound fair?’ It felt more than fair, it felt like a divine summons from a world where the air was just that little bit sweeter. Over the next five years I spent a lot of time with Dron and I’m proud to consider him a mentor, even a father figure at times, although I’m pretty sure some of the advice he passed on would have made my own father wince with alarm. Above all, however, I was lucky enough to sit next to him in a variety of driving machines - from state-of-the-art race and rally cars to a 40ft canal barge - and I can categorically say that he was a man who had an affinity with the dimensions of space and time that was far beyond the understanding of most mortals. And such respect for those machines, too. Pure mechanical poetry. He often spoke of his admiration for the WW2 fighter pilots who defended this island during the long hot summer of 1940, and I recall he was moved to narrate onto tape ‘The Last Enemy’ (the story of burned fighter ace Richard Hilary). Dron was cut from the same cloth as these men, which is about the greatest accolade I can think of. Ian Young

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