The following news item appeared in the Daily Telegraph of 16th July, 1992:

Next year's noisiest film will be made by a director called Tony Maylam. Entitled Mon Ami Mate, it is the story of Fifties motor racing champions, Pete Collins (in action above) and Mike Hawthorn (inset), who raced together for Ferrari and died within months of each other in crashes.

"We're concentrating on the last months of their lives," says Maylam. "We've got to re-create the British, German and Casablanca grand prix and will be filming at a private race track in Yorkshire."

While casting begins this month, motor racing fanatics Alain de Cadenet and Ludovic Lindsay, who have raced vintage cars in the Panamericana race, will be helping Maylam with spanners and advice. De Cadenet once built a replica of Sir Donald Campbell's Bluebird and will start from scratch to re-create Collins' and Hawthorn's Ferraris.

Also featuring in the £5 million film, which will appear next year, will be the character of Stirling Moss, who Hawthorn beat by one point to take the 1958 world title. "His initial reaction was 'why aren't you doing my story'," says Maylam. "But I'm sure he'll give us a hand."

And since then

Nothing! A few props were apparently made but the film never materialised.


You can find a review of Chris Nixon's book 'Mon Ami Mate' here on this site.