After a brief career in insurance, he started in journalism on the Oswestry and Border Counties Advertizer, and later moved to the Shrewsbury Chronicle.
His work was eclectic and in the 1970s he contributed to a series of travel guidebooks which built upon his wide-ranging knowledge of the UK and made good use of his love of Wales.
[1] Although, superficially, most of his writing was about cars it often also touched on aspects of military history, travel and engineering (he was an admirer of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford).
In his foreword, Jeremy Clarkson, the journalist and former presenter of BBC Television's Top Gear, wrote "Phil realized that cars were dull.
The prize is £1,000 worth of travel vouchers, a visit to the Aston Martin factory at Gaydon (and passenger ride in one of the cars) and a week's loan of a new Audi to the winner's parents.