During the 1960s and 1970s, working closely with Tyrrell Racing, he ran cars for several top drivers of the time, including Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jack Brabham.

[1] He finished on the podium on several occasions, and won two races in 1952 with the Cooper – at Thruxton and in the Commander Yorke Trophy at Silverstone, beating Bob Gerard.

[2] Also in 1953, Coombs earned a test at Snetterton with the Connaught Engineering factory team, alongside Roy Salvadori, Jack Fairman and Ian Stewart.

Coombs began by running a Lotus 15 in sports car racing for Ron Flockhart and Roy Salvadori with some success, before switching to a pair of Cooper Monacos, his drivers including Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren.

[1] With the backing of his car dealership contacts, Coombs also ran Jaguar Mark 1s for Flockhart, Duncan Hamilton and occasionally other drivers such as Walt Hansgen.

He also bought a Ferrari 250 GTO and lent it to Jaguar at the end of 1962 to help them prepare a new lightweight E-Type, which found success with Hill at the wheel.