Love was born in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. After the Second World War — during which he served with the Armoured Car Division in the Middle East and Italy, gaining early driving experience and even lapping Monza on a Zündapp motorcycle while stationed there — he returned to Bulawayo and in 1947 began racing motorcycles, competing on a TT-replica Rudge, Norton, AJS, Triumph, and Velocette over the following years. He sold one of his bikes to a young Jim Redman, who went on to become a world champion road racer. Love switched to four wheels around 1954, acquiring a Cooper Mk III with a JAP engine, then a Norton-powered Cooper, scoring five victories each at Umgusa Speedway and Salisbury's Coronation Park.
In 1961 and 1962 Love made extended trips to Europe to compete in Formula Junior. Working for Ken Tyrrell alongside teammates that included Tony Maggs and Jo Siffert, he won races at Chimay, Caserta, La Chatre, Nogaro, Roskilde Ring, and Montlhéry. During the 1962 European season he also drove a Mini Cooper in the British Saloon Car Championship for the Cooper Car Company, winning the title with seven class victories from eight races. A serious accident at a Formula Junior race at Albi left him with a badly broken arm requiring a bone graft from his hip; he was never again able to fully bend the arm and adapted his driving technique accordingly, often resting his left hand on the lip of the windscreen through corners. The injury effectively ended his prospects of a sustained European career.
In 1962 he made his World Championship debut at the non-championship South African Grand Prix and, in September 1964, was nominated as Phil Hill's replacement for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in the works Cooper, though a broken distributor during qualifying prevented him from starting.
Returning to southern Africa, Love built an era of dominance in the South African Formula One Championship that has no parallel in the series' history. He won the title six consecutive times — 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 — driving a succession of cars including a Cooper T55-Climax, Cooper T79-Climax, Brabham BT20, Lotus 49, and Surtees TS9. He also won the Rhodesian Grand Prix six times over the course of his career and was regarded as a national hero in both Rhodesia and South Africa.
His team mechanic Gordon Jones maintained his cars throughout much of this period. Gunston cigarettes sponsored Love and his compatriot Sam Tingle from the 1968 season onward, making the Love-Tingle arrangement one of the first tobacco sponsorships in international motor racing — a landmark that preceded the avalanche of tobacco money into Formula One that followed in the early 1970s. Love was also the first privateer to run a Cosworth DFV engine, fitting it to his Lotus 49 in 1968.
Love's most celebrated outing came at the 1967 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami on 2 January 1967, against the full complement of World Championship teams. Driving his Cooper T79 fitted with a 2.7-litre Climax engine — a larger-displacement unit that offset the car's age — he qualified fifth and ran strongly through the race. After Denny Hulme pitted from the lead on lap 61, Love led the World Championship race in a car that was several years old. A slight misfire prompted his team to call him in for a precautionary fuel stop, believing he might be running short. He rejoined with only a handful of laps remaining, having lost his lead to Pedro Rodríguez, and finished second — his only World Championship podium. It was later found that the car had sufficient fuel remaining; the misfire was caused by the fuel pump Love had lent to Rob Walker before the race, leaving himself with the inferior spare. He described it as "my best performance and also my biggest disappointment."
The 1970s brought the rise of Dave Charlton, who went on to equal Love's six South African titles. Love continued racing through 1973 in a Chevron B25 under Gunston sponsorship, his best result a third at the Highveld 100. A near-decapitation accident at Kyalami in 1971 — when his Surtees TS9's throttle jammed open and the car forced its way between two layers of Armco barrier with the guardrail pushing his head sideways — was survived without serious injury. By popular demand Love came out of retirement at the end of the 1979 season for two Formula Atlantic races in a Gunston-liveried March 77B, posting a top-six finish at Killarney aged 54. He later made brief appearances in Zimbabwean saloon car racing in the mid-1980s in a VW Golf GTi.
Love established a Jaguar dealership in Bulawayo and remained a well-known figure at South African and Zimbabwean race meetings in retirement. Terminally ill with cancer, he made a final appearance at the Zwartkops historic meeting held in his honour in January 2005. He died in Bulawayo on 25 April 2005, aged 80.
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