Iread your book review on drivers’ helmet design (Books, September 2022) and would like to add a few unknown details to the background of Nigel Mansell’s iconic helmet, as aged 18 I was the creator of the design. In 1977 after winning the Formula Ford Championship, Nigel was just advancing to Formula 3 and mentioned to me he was upgrading to a Bell helmet. I suggested a new design and prepared some sketches. Nigel was very patriotic and I used a stylised Union Jack as inspiration. To my amazement he used it exactly on his new helmet! Over the years Nigel modified the design only slightly (‘Nigel’ was on the side of the first helmet) to accommodate sponsorship deals.
I went off to study architecture in 1979 and we never met again until I bumped into him in Piccadilly in 2016, and of course
