Lederle was born in Theunissen, in the Orange Free State, and attended school in Bloemfontein. His father, a retired miller and farmer, was an enthusiastic motorsport supporter who financed his son's early racing ambitions. After obtaining a diploma in farming and farm management from an agricultural college, Lederle spent nine months in England in 1958 driving a Volkswagen in production car events at Goodwood, Silverstone, and other circuits. He returned to England in 1961 to race a Formula Junior Lotus 20 at Snetterton and Mallory Park, describing those seasons as a period of deliberate learning rather than results chasing.
After returning to South Africa with a Formula Junior Lotus, Lederle contested local events from 1961 onward, gaining attention through consistent rather than spectacular performances. His first major breakthrough came in October 1961 when he finished second behind Gary Hocking in the Rand Spring Trophy. He acquired an ex-Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor Lotus 21-Climax for the 1962 season, purchasing the car from Syd van der Vyver. The 21, prepared meticulously by his mechanic Vic Mobey, proved the more competitive machinery: it finished all three Grands Prix of the 1962 Springbok series without a pit stop of any sort, a distinction no other car in the field could match.
During the Springbok series Lederle took a second place at the Rhodesian Grand Prix at Kumalo and a fifth at the Rand Grand Prix at Kyalami, behind Jim Clark, Trevor Taylor, John Surtees, and Gary Hocking. At the Natal Grand Prix he made the front row of the grid alongside Graham Hill's BRM and the eventual race winner Trevor Taylor.
The World Championship South African Grand Prix at East London on 29 December 1962 was the first such race held on South African soil and Lederle's debut at that level. He qualified tenth among the field. The race itself was dominated by the championship battle between Graham Hill and Jim Clark, whose Lotus retired after 60 laps with an oil leak. Despite driving with a broken steering wheel and a car concealing a cracked engine block — a fault his mechanic had discovered and quietly patched before the start — Lederle finished sixth to score one championship point and become the highest-placed four-cylinder car, ahead of the V8-powered machinery behind him. Fellow South African Tony Maggs finished third, but as a works Cooper driver rather than a privateer.
After the race Stirling Moss, asked by journalists who had impressed him, said he would unhesitatingly choose Lederle as the most promising driver, given the equipment he had used. Motor Racing magazine ran an article calling him a driver of great promise. The point elevated him to the status of an FIA-graded Formula One driver for 1963, which ironically barred him from entering certain national events outside South Africa under the regulations then in force.
Lederle dominated the 1963 domestic season, winning six of seven events in the Springbok series and related national races. At the Rand Autumn Trophy he ran out of fuel while leading with two laps remaining; spotting a stranded Lotus 7 nearby, he removed its reserve fuel tank and poured it into his own car, rejoined the race, caught the two drivers who had passed him, and finished. The stewards deliberated but ruled that he had assisted himself rather than received outside help, and the result stood. He took further victories at the Easter Grand Prix at Westmead, the Coronation 100, the South African Republic Festival at Kyalami, and the Border 100 in East London. After the Border 100 the championship title was mathematically his, with four races still remaining.
The season ended in injury. While practising in a Lotus 23 entered by Thompson Brothers for the Kyalami 9 Hours, in which he was due to co-drive with Brausch Niemann, his right foot became trapped between the pedals at the Leeukop bend at speed above 90 miles per hour. The impact with the banking broke his left leg in two places, one fracture requiring a bone graft from his hip. Recovery was slow, and during this period his father also died, leaving him responsible for the family's Volkswagen dealership business.
Lederle missed most of 1964 while recovering from his injuries. He returned for the year's end-of-season Rand Grand Prix, finishing tenth, but narrowly failed to set a qualifying time for the January 1965 South African Grand Prix. That failure ended his active single-seater career. He concentrated on his business interests but continued to compete in rally events for some years, and in 1968 his Beetle was the only car to make it over the Sani Pass unaided in the Roof of Africa trial.
In 2002, at Killarney, he was reunited with his championship-winning Lotus 21 — by then owned by American collector Bob Woodward — and was permitted, after initial resistance from a race official overridden at the intervention of David Piper's wife, to drive the car for a few laps.
Neville Lederle died on 17 May 2019 in Knysna, Western Cape, at the age of eighty.