“Wanna race?”

I was sitting at traffic lights on the A240 Kingston Road in Surrey one summer evening in the late 1980s, homeward bound from my junior staff role in the Fast Lane magazine office. I can’t remember what I was driving but it must have been brand new and pretty quick, that being the magazine’s stock in trade. Gauntlets were often thrown by lads in hot hatchbacks, but to be challenged by a 1959 Ford Zephyr Mk2 was most unusual.

I declined. The Zephyr’s driver was none other than Tony Dron, the editor of Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine, and I noticed a mischievous glint in his eye, although it was often hard to know whether he was joking or not. In any case, I didn’t stand a chance. 

And now I never will, because on 16 November Tony passed away after a long battle with lung disease. He was just 75 years old.

Since 1968, when as an aspiring journalist seeking to fund his racing ambitions he won the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons Scholarship, Tony always demonstrated a rare combination of eloquence and expertise. It was evident in his work for Motor magazine from 1971-74, in his hugely influential editorship of Classic Cars from 1984-92, in his authorship of several books and in his contributions to Octane magazine and The Daily Telegraph.