The defining image of the British racing driver Alain de Cadenet, who has died aged 76, is likely to remain the viral clip of him standing on the grass at the Imperial War Museum’s Duxford airfield in 1996, smoothly delivering an introduction to camera, when a Supermarine Spitfire suddenly appears from behind him, flying at zero altitude, its propeller almost giving him an impromptu haircut.
Even the roar of the plane’s Merlin engine cannot drown the series of expletives – part shock, part terror, part sheer joy and exhilaration – with which a ducking De Cadenet responds.
