He started racing as a way to meet women, then found he liked the cars, too
“I was invited to Brands Hatch by a friend of mine who was racing there, and I had never been to a motor race in my life,” he told Classic Driver. “I had a rather cracking model girlfriend, so I took her down with me. She disappeared—apparently she went off with some guy who was a racing driver, so I thought I’d better go motor racing. Although I got into it because I thought it would be a great way to get with women, I started to rather enjoy the racing.
So he started racing sports cars. It was at a time when innovative privateers still stood a chance of beating the increasingly well-funded factory teams. He was one of the few drivers from any era who built and raced their own cars. De Cadenet drove at Le Mans numerous times, finishing as high as third in 1976 in his own De Cadenet-Lola T380 Ford-Cosworth. He raced that car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from ‘75 to ‘79 then switched to another De Cadenet, a Lola LM Ford-Cosworth.