Ferrari: Race To Immortality chronicles the finest daredevil racers in their heyday.

“It was an era of great glamour and great risk,” says the voiceover in a new documentary released this week about the tumultuous early years of the Ferrari race team, Ferrari: Race To Immortality. And there in a nutshell explains the enduring appeal of motorsport, undoubtedly forged at this time: daredevil racers gambling with their lives on the track, and living like there was no tomorrow off of it. And looking great while they did so.

Glamour, speed, sex, money and danger, set against the backdrop of the world’s most exotic locations. The world had never seen anything like it. And in the post-war gloom of the 1950s, the young British drivers that the documentary focuses on, Mr Mike Hawthorn and Mr Peter Collins, must have dazzled. At the top sat Mr Enzo Ferrari, founder of the Ferrari team. A machiavellian, mafia don of a leader, who demanded total loyalty and utter fearlessness from his drivers. In return, he promised them: “Win or die, you will be immortal.”

For aficionados of classic 1950s style, the documentary offers us a look at the original context in which jet-set playboy style emerged, one that is still copied and admired today. Softly tailored Italian suits and sport jackets, an amazing array of sunglasses that look as though they come from Persol and Bausch + Lomb (one can’t be entirely certain), striped cotton racing jerseys, rollnecks, goggles, racing blousons – the kind of fantasy clothing which the likes of Connolly, Dunhill and Ralph Lauren now specialise in.

Mr Collins had an amazing head of swept back hair, a few strands of which would fall dramatically over his face when the action got going. While Mr Hawthorn, in his softly tailored sports jackets, gold framed glasses, polka dot bow ties (worn while driving), accessorised with a cigarette, a devilish grin and bottle of champagne, looks every inch the gentleman racer, at the grand prix in Monaco, Porto and Reims. They would sometimes throw on a tailored jacket over their racing overalls, and it’s this mix of modern function combined with timeless elegance that feels so very relevant to the way men dress today. No wonder so many of the enduring looks in the menswear canon such as blousons, racing jerseys, and driving shoes have come from motorsport.

Both drivers have the air of maverick Spitfire pilots. Meanwhile, Mr Ferrari deliberately stoked a fierce rivalry between the two English friends and another Ferrari driver, the Italian Mr Luigi Musso, when he joined in 1955. Inscrutable and enigmatic in his heavy framed glasses, swept back hair, and sleekly tailored suits, he was a ruthless Italian tycoon right down to his spit-shined shoes. Even the spectators seem to know how to dress.

When Mr Collins died in the 1958 Großer Preis von Deutschland at the Nürburgring, Mr Hawthorn hung up his racing goggles for good, but not before winning the Drivers’ Championship that season, much to the chagrin of Mr Ferrari who could not understand why Mr Hawthorn would retire. All three are now immortal. Today, F1 still draws much of its glamour and romance from the legend of these two daredevils, and their charismatic leader. It’s just a shame they’re not quite as heroic (or well dressed).

Ferrari: Race To Immortality is out 3 November, and available on DVD and Blu-ray 6 November

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