I could talk about David Purley, or Dave as I’ve always known him, all day long, but for the sake of this piece I’ll restrict it to a few lines to give readers a glimpse into my view of a truly great character and a very good friend. As boys, we both lived in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, or “Bloody Bognor” as we called it—not too far from Goodwood. I lived on the west side at Pagham, in fact I…

During the 1970 season, Bell’s great friend David Purley sampled what would soon become Bell’s own arena by racing this Chevron B8 at Brands Hatch.
Photo: Peter Collins