This book is the biography of Cliff Allison, who started motor racing over fifty years ago with a little Cooper 500. Very much a countryman at heart, Allison was not one of the party-going racing drivers, but a driver with a huge ambition to race in Formula 1. He and Graham Hill competed in the first Grand Prix race for Colin Chapman's Lotus team in 1958, and scored the first World Championship points for Lotus. He later joined Ferrari, winning the Argentinian 1000km sports car race with American co-driver Phil Hill, as well as being a member of the Ferrari Grand Prix team in 1959 and 1960.

Cliff Allison can also claim victories in many sports car events including winning the Index of Performance at Le Mans in 1957 with a 750cc Lotus Eleven-Climax.

His retired from racing following an accident driving a Lotus-Climax in practice for the Belgian GP at Spa in 1961.