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Friday 30 November 2012

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car seen in the paddock at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.
It's a Ferrari 250 GTE from the early 1960s in the guise of an Italian police car. Two of these cars were apparently provided for the Rome police, one of which was involved in a crash and written-off on its first day of service and the second one is said to be in the police museum in Rome. The car pictured here doesn't seem to be the same car as the original police car shown in images I've seen on the web, so is perhaps a look-alike formed from a standard GTE (possibly 2293GT). Most of the Ferrari 250 road cars used the Columbo designed V12 3 litre engine but the 250 GTE police cars were thought to have a later 4 litre engine.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Butler-Henderson and Others

These photographs were taken at an British Rail exhibition of railway engines at Central Station in Manchester in 1962.
This is the Great Central Railway's 'Butler-Henderson' (named after Eric Butler-Henderson, a director of the company), the only remaining example of the Improved Director (11F) Class locomotive. It was given the number 506 when built at Gorton in 1920 and when the Great Central Railway was incorporated into the LNER in 1923 it was renumbered 5506 (later 2660), then when British Railways came into being in 1948 it was again renumbered as 62660. It is currently shown on their website as being one of the National Railway Museum's locomotives but as being loan to Great Central Railway, possibly at Barrowhill Roundhouse.


The photograph below is of the Princess Coronation Class locomotive named 'Sir William A Stanier FRS' in honour of the designer, Chief Mechanical Engineer of LMS. Construction of this class started in 1937, although this particular example was built (at Crewe) in 1947, when H.G. Ivatt had taken charge, and was given the number 6256, being renumbered 46256 when it came under the control of British Railways. It was withdrawn from service in 1964 and has not been preserved.

The last photograph is of a class AL5 locomotive No. E3058. These were built in the early 1960s at Doncaster works and were used on the then newly electrified West Coast Main Line. When British Rail introduced a new computer numbering system in 1968 the class designation was changed to 85 and the locomotives were subsequently renumbered, this one becoming 85003. Fifteen locomotives, this one included, were then modified for freight use only and their class became 85/1, whereupon it became 85113. This locomotive was withdrawn in 1991 and subsequently scrapped, and only one of the original AL5 class is shown as being preserved (at Barrowhill Roundhouse) - E3061/85006/85101.

Thanks to Wikipedia, The National Railway Museum, and other websites for the information about these locomotives.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Ford GT40

This is a photograph of a Ford GT40 in Gulf Oil Racing colours taken at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001. The Ford GT40 MkI won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1968 and 1969 entered by the John Wyer Automotive Engineering Team. The MkII version entered by Shelby-American Inc had won the 1966 race and the Mk IV version entered by the same team won the 1967 race.

Henry Ford II, in an effort to win the Le Mans race for Ford, had attempted in 1963 to buy the Ferrari racing team and after being rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari was determined to develop a Ford car to take on and beat Ferrari. The manufacturer Ford eventually chose to develop what became the GT40 was the British Lola firm who were already using a Ford V8 engine in their mid-engined Lola Mk6, and it was from this car that the GT40 was created. The original Lola Mk6 also appeared at this Silverstone meeting and here are two photographs of the car which I took that day.


Sunday 25 November 2012

Coventry Cathedral and Sir Jacob Epstein

On 30 July 1994 when returning home from Silverstone along the M6 it was raining, althought the sun was shining to my left, and I remember admiring a vivid and perfect semi-circle of a rainbow to the right. Then the rain became heavier and quickly became a torrential downpour. Unusually for me, I did the sensible thing and left the motorway at the (fortunately) nearby exit and Coventry being close by I decided to have a drive round there till the rain had eased off. The rain soon stopped though and the sun came out so I thought I'd try to find the Cathedral and maybe take a few photographs. The photographs below are of two works at the Cathedral by Sir Jacob Epstein.
'St Michael and the Devil' commissioned in 1957 and mounted in June 1960, just under a year after Epstein's death. It weighs 4 tons and is just over 19 feet in height.

'Ecce Homo' which stands in the ruins of the old Cathedral. This work was executed in 1934/35 and depicts Christ standing before Pontius Pilate. It was donated by Epstein's widow after his death.

Thanks to Ecclesiart and The National Archives for details of the statues.

Friday 23 November 2012

Friday's Ferrari

Today there's two examples of the Ferrari F40 photographed in the Ferrari Owners Club area at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997. This 2.9 litre V8 mid-engined car was produced from 1987 to 1992,  replacing the the 288 GTO and in turn being replaced by the F50.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Northern Classic Car Show

The early Northern Classic Car Shows were held in the old Belle Vue exhibition halls and the brochure for the 5th show in September 1986 had this to say:

'Volvo Owners Club
Special Feature
As the winners of the stand competition at last year's show we are proud to have been invited to stage the Feature Stand this year. Volvo concessionaires have loaned three cars from their collection:- 1928 PV4 'Jakob' - this was the covered version of Volvo's first car; 1935 PV36 'Carioca' - Volvo's first streamlined car named after a latin-american dance of the period; 1947 PV444A - the model that made Volvo famous all over the world.'
1928 PV4 'Jakob'

1935 PV36 'Carioca'

1947 PV444A

Sunday 18 November 2012

RAFA Woodford Air Show 24 June 1995

One of the display teams at the 1995 Woodford Air Show was the French Patrouille Ecco team, according to the programme of the event 'France's premier civil display team'. Here's three photographs of their display. According to the Wikipedia entry they are Swiss-built Pilatus PC-7 aircraft.



Friday 16 November 2012

Friday's Ferrari

Today's photograph is another one taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997. It's a Vignale-bodied Ferrari 166MM Spyder. serial number 0314M, which competed in the 1954 Mille Miglia.

Monday 12 November 2012

Sand Racing - Guernsey 23 June 2012

On our holiday in Guernsey in June this year we went to Vazon Beach to watch some motor cycle sand racing. I've not seen this before, but it's similar to speedway racing in that the races are four laps of an oval track about 400 yards round. The racing had already started when we got there and I didn't see any programmes for sale, so I don't know the names of the riders who appear in my photographs. The meeting was apparently organised by the Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club.



As in speedway, the sidecar races were run in a clockwise direction as the sidecars are on the left-hand side of the motorbike.


I love the opposite-lock cornering of the sidecar outfits

Friday 9 November 2012

Friday's Ferrari

The 1956 Ferrari 860 Monza had a Lampredi designed 3.4 litre four cylinder engine and, in conjunction with the 290MM, was victorious in the 1956 World Sportscar Championship, winning three of the five races on the calendar, the 12 hours of Sebring, the Mille Miglia, and the Swedish Grand Prix. Three of the cars were built, one of which is now owned by Chris Evans. Two of the cars were at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995, although the programme shows the engine displacement for both of them as 3000cc.
This car, serial number 0604M, in 1995 was owned (and driven) by the Frenchman Jean Sage

The programme shows this one, serial number 0602M, to have been owned and driven by the German Fritz Grashie

Wednesday 7 November 2012

BRM (British Racing Motors)

BRM was formed in 1945 by Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon and their first car, the 1.5 litre supercharged V16 engined P15 started its first race in 1950. BRM continued in racing till 1977 and the car pictured below is the 3 litre V12 P201 from 1974.
The P201 in the pit garage at Silverstone at the Historic tribute meeting in June 2004

Rob Hall rounding Luffield Corner during the Grand Prix Masters race

Sunday 4 November 2012

Jupiter

After the weather forecast on the television news last Thursday they mentioned that the planet Jupiter would be seen in close proximity to the Moon that night. I assumed that, as usual, the clouds would roll in and deprive us of the chance to see this. They didn't, however, and this is what I managed to photograph just before 10pm:

We're underneath the flight path for aeroplanes landing at Manchester airport and one flew over whilst I was taking this photograph, so I thought I'd try to photograph that. This is the result:
I think I'll enter that for the next Turner prize.

Friday 2 November 2012

Friday's Ferrari

For the 1968 season Ferrari continued with the 3 litre V12 engined car introduced in 1966. It was driven by Jackie Ickx, Chris Amon, Derek Bell and Andrea de Adamich but didn't have much success, winning only one race, in the hands of Jackie Ickx at the French Grand Prix. The photograph below was taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.