Taylor raced extensively in Formula Junior during 1962 and 1963, driving a Cooper-Ford. In 1964 he won the very first event of the newly introduced Formula Three at Mallory Park, driving a Cooper T72-BMC for Tyrrell Racing Organisation — a notable early result for both driver and team. He also competed in non-championship Formula One events through Bob Gerard Racing, where he drove a Cooper T59 fitted with a Ford 109E engine and, later, a Cooper T60 with a Climax FWMV V8.
His non-championship results included seventh in the 1963 Aintree 200, and in 1964 he recorded seventh in the News of the World Trophy at Goodwood, fifth in the Aintree 200, and seventh in the Mediterranean Grand Prix at Pergusa. He made his World Championship debut at the 1964 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, finishing fourteenth — 24 laps behind after an extended pit stop caused by a gearbox problem.
Taylor did not compete in the 1966 Formula One World Championship in 1965, continuing instead in non-championship Formula One. He returned to the World Championship grid in 1966 as a privateer, driving a two-litre Brabham BT11 powered by a BRM P60 V8 engine, entered by Team David Bridges.
The season opened with promising non-championship form: he finished sixth in the International Trophy at Silverstone. Then on 3 July 1966, Taylor scored his only World Championship point by finishing sixth in the French Grand Prix at Reims — the last Grand Prix to be held at the historic ultra-fast circuit — three laps behind the winning Brabham BT19-Repco of Jack Brabham. He subsequently recorded eighth places at both the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch and the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
Taylor also shared Peter Sutcliffe's Red Rose Motors Ford GT40 in the 1000 Kilometres of the Nurburgring on 5 June 1966, a round of the World Sportscar Championship. The pair finished second in class and sixth overall.
The 1966 German Grand Prix, held on 7 August at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in rain-swept conditions, proved to be Taylor's fifth and final World Championship start. He qualified 25th, in a time of 9 minutes 8.9 seconds, starting from the outside of the penultimate row alongside a large group of Formula Two cars that had been invited to supplement the field.
During the early stages of the race, Taylor ran into the back of Jacky Ickx's Matra MS5-Cosworth Formula Two car and crashed at the Quiddelbacher Hohe section of the circuit. His Brabham BT11-BRM caught fire and Taylor suffered severe burns. Although he initially appeared to be making a slow recovery, he died from his injuries on 8 September 1966 at a hospital in Koblenz. He was 33 years old and was survived by his wife Irene.
Taylor was remembered by the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC), which organised an annual Formula Junior historic event at Mallory Park titled the John Taylor Memorial Trophy Race. His death at the Nurburgring — the same circuit where Carel Godin de Beaufort had been fatally injured two years earlier — came during the deadliest era in Formula One's history, a period in which the sport's extreme danger was still widely accepted as an inherent condition of competition.