A former racing driver who made his name nearly 50 years ago has given his endorsement today to a new £1.5 million conference centre containing some of the world's finest supercars.

David Piper, who raced in three Formula One World Championship Grand Prix events, visited Bradford to inspect the nearly-complete Speedmaster conference centre in Albion Mills, Greengates.

Project bosses hope the centre will be the finest of its kind in the North of England, providing space for 450 delegates, with a showroom in the foyer for up to 17 racing cars.

Mr Piper initially competed in sprints and hill-climbs, before racing a Lotus XI and Lotus 16 in F1 and F2 in 1959-60.

Between 1962 and 1970, he raced all over the world in his own Ferraris and Porsches, winning races in South Africa, Angola, Sweden and Japan.

In 1970, he crashed his Porsche 917 while working on the Steve McQueen film Le Mans, and had the lower part of a leg amputated. Later on, he returned to race in historic events and he has become a mainstay of these enjoyable festivals with his stable of racing thoroughbreds.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus while touring the premises, Mr Piper said: "It is really impressive and is an ideal location for people to visit. They have an excellent showroom with some really classic cars.

"Car enthusiasts get bitten by the bug young and it never goes away. In Italy they call it the sickness.' "The newer racing cars here are very different to how it was in my day. Compared to the modern Formula One cars what we drove were dinosaurs.

"The Lotus 11 was a great car but they were so light you had to follow us around with a welding torch to keep doing repairs! The Lotus was developed on British Airfield circuits but when we got to the continent a track would just be the main streets with a few hay bales chucked on the corners so you couldn't drive as fast and there were some pretty spectacular offs.' There were some great drivers in those days. I remember Fangio and Gonzales used to invite us to visit them when we raced in Buenos Aires - they were great guys. It was always wild driving in South America."

Bosses at the Speedmaster Centre hope Mr Piper's visit will be the first in a long line of celebrity endorsements for the new conference centre, which is due to be complete in a month.

It is hoped that a different personality from the motor racing world will visit the centre each month to view the facilities and talk about their experiences.

Managing Director James Hanson explained the ethos behind the concept: "My whole family have been involved with and obsessed by cars. To me they are like moving works of art. We thought the only way to show these cars was to have a really impressive showroom."