MURRAY WALKER - THE ALFA AND THE HONDA

There is no doubt in the minds of many people that motorsport's greatest commentator of the 20th century was Murray Walker OBE. He became the voice of Formula 1, the Isle of Man TT, British Touring Cars, Rallycross, you name it, he called it. His excitement, energy and charisma captured the imagination of the motorsport fan, and there are not many characters held in higher regard by the community. We all miss him dearly, and at Downforce Radio we were incredibly lucky to spend just a few short minutes with him in his final years.

When we spoke to him at the Motorsport Hall of Fame back in 2017, he gave us two phenomenal contributions to our museum:

"I'm besotted with racing cars and racing motorcycles, so I'm going to put two things into the museum. One of them would be the 158 Alfa Romeo which competed in Formula 1 immediately after the war. Juan Manuel Fangio won his first world championship in it, and Giuseppe Farina won the first ever world championship Formula 1 race at Silverstone in 1950, and I would put it into the museum because of its historical significance, because of its performance and because of its beauty - it's a lovely looking motor car.

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"The motorcycle I would put into the museum is Mike Hailwood's 250cc six cylinder Honda which he won the Isle of Man TT on, because Mike Hailwood was a close personal friend of mine and I miss him to this day, and the Honda was quite an incredible mechanical masterpiece."

What a way to start the gallery, and with two absolute masterpieces. In essence this section of our website was inspired by Murray, his incredible storytelling skills and his fabulous passion for the sport. Most of us are in it because of what he gave to us as fans, and we wish to hour his legacy by christening our fictional building 'The Murray Walker Motorsport Museum of Magic'.

All those in favour, say I........

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