Although he never scored a point in the Formula One world championship, for several years Kenneth McAlpine, who has died aged 102, held the title of the oldest surviving grand prix driver. His seven appearances in the series between 1952 and 1955 yielded a best result of 13th place at the Nürburgring in the German Grand Prix of 1954. In each of those races he was at the wheel of a Connaught, a car designed and built in a Surrey garage by a team whose efforts he subsidised from his personal wealth as a director of the vast construction company set up by his grandfather, Sir Robert McAlpine.
In the summer of 1955 Kenneth McAlpine retired from the cockpit, honouring a promise to his fiancee. That autumn, at Syracuse in Sicily, a Connaught became the first British car to win a postwar grand prix, beating the mighty works Maserati team on their home ground. At the wheel of the winning car was a 23-year-old dental student from Cheshire named Tony Brooks, making his Formula One debut.
Although the Syracuse Grand Prix was not a round of the championship series, the achievement was historic. But further success would be elusive, and the team’s demise followed the British government’s decision in 1957 to alter a tax concession that had enabled McAlpine to provide the finance that kept them going. With his help, however, Connaught had given British machinery a new standing in grand prix racing, preparing the ground for the subsequent championship victories of Vanwall, Cooper, BRM and Lotus.
McAlpine was born in Cobham, Surrey, to Sir Thomas McAlpine and the former Maud Dees. His father was one of the 10 children of “Concrete Bob”, the nickname of Sir Robert McAlpine, who began his working life as a child down a Scottish coalmine near Motherwell and went on to create the family-owned civil engineering company that built the original Wembley stadium, the Dorchester hotel, the National Theatre and many other landmarks.
Kenneth went to work for the company on leaving Charterhouse school before joining the RAF Volunteer Reserve at the outbreak of the second world war. After being trained as a pilot in the US, he returned to Britain in 1944 to serve as a flight instructor.
In peacetime he returned to the company while pursuing his hobby of motor racing. The purchase of an Allard in 1948, followed by a Bugatti, both acquired from Continental Cars in Send, Surrey, brought him into contact with the garage’s owner, Rodney Clarke, and his associate, Mike Oliver, both former RAF pilots. Continental Cars prepared the two prewar Maserati grand prix cars with which McAlpine took part in speed trials and hill climbs, followed by his first circuit race on a disused airfield at Gransden Lodge, near Cambridge. There were also outings in a JBS-Norton in the 500cc Formula Three, competing alongside Stirling Moss and other future stars.
When Clarke announced his plan to build a sports car suitable for racing, McAlpine provided the backing. The first Connaught – its name an elaboration of the first syllables of “Continental” and “automobile” – used a heavily modified Lea-Francis chassis and engine and aluminium bodywork copied from the design of Italian cars.
Modest success in club racing soon led the team to raise their sights by building single-seaters. McAlpine gave the first example its debut in 1950, finishing second to Moss’s HWM at Castle Combe and winning a Formula Libre race at Ibsley in Dorset in 1951. Several examples were campaigned over the following seasons by drivers including Roy Salvadori, Tony Rolt, Eric Thompson and Ken Downing.
In 1955 McAlpine took the team’s new sports car to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, co-driving with Thompson. They retired with engine failure after six hours, shortly after the crash in which the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh flew into the crowd, killing the driver and 83 spectators.
Although McAlpine continued to provide funds, the team could never match the resources available to their competitors. The success at Syracuse provided an unexpected boost to their morale, but when the Suez crisis forced the cancellation of several events in 1957, depriving them of guaranteed starting money, the racing operation was closed and the cars put up for auction.
Their patron’s involvement in motor sport was also at an end. While concentrating on the construction business, McAlpine went on to start a helicopter service, race sailing boats and open a successful vineyard at his home in Lamberhurst, Kent. He served as high sheriff of Kent in 1973-74 and was appointed OBE in 1997.
In 1955 he married Patricia Jeans, the daughter of a naval officer. She survives him, as do their two sons, Richard and James, and three grandchildren.
• Kenneth McAlpine, civil engineer, winemaker, pilot and racing driver, born 21 September 1920; died 8 April 2023
