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Tuesday 30 June 2015

Maserati 6CM

This is one of the cars that took part in the 12 lap race for the Richard Seaman Historic Trophy at the VSCC race meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.
It's the 1936 Maserati 6CM of Roger Lucas. Grand Prix racing in the 1930s was dominated by the German teams of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union, and to a lesser extent the Italian Alfa Romeo team. Smaller manufacturers like Maserati built their cars for the Voiturette (or 'small car') class which was for cars with a maximum capacity of 1½ litres. The 4-cylinder Maserati 4CM introduced in 1932 had considerable success, but when these cars started to be outclassed by the British ERA cars Maserati produced the 6CM with a 6-cylinder 1½ litre supercharged engine which then became the car to beat.

Monday 29 June 2015

Crossley DD42

This bus was amongst the vehicles displayed at Heaton Park, Manchester, at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally organised by the Greater Manchester Transport Society in September 1993.
It's not shown in the programme of the event, but it's a 1950 Crossley DD42/7 which was formerly part of the Birmingham Corporation Transport fleet. It was provided with a Crossley H30/24R body to Birmingham's standard design and is chassis number 95177.

Sunday 28 June 2015

View from an Aeroplane

Our eldest son and his family live on Guernsey and we visit them there every couple of months or so. Flying is a bit boring if the weather's cloudy, but I rather enjoy it when it's clear and it's interesting trying to identify the places we pass over. It's easy enough when taking off and landing, both in Manchester and Guernsey, and I've got some rather nice photographs of the coastline of Guernsey and the area around Hyde, where we live, and Denton & Stockport. During the flight, which we are told is at 17,000 feet (about 3¼ miles), I look out for features which I may be able to identify later - the Isle of Wight is obviously easy to recognise, and Southampton's on the mainland just to the north of that, but I've also got photographs of Derby, Northampton and Leicester which I've been able to identify from the areas around the football and rugby stadiums. Returning from our latest trip I noticed what looked like a landing strip, but it was only when I realised that what seemed like a kart track next to it was Donington Park race circuit that I could see that the 'landing strip' was actually East Midlands Airport. Here's a photograph I took (and I've enlarged it a bit to make it clearer):
The outline of the Donington Park circuit which you can see isn't the actual track, it's the gravel run-off areas on the outside of each corner.

We fly to and from Guernsey using the Channel Islands airline, Aurigny Air Services, and the aircraft on the Manchester flight is usually one of the airline's three ATR72 500s, G-BWDB, G-COBO or G-VZON. On the last trip we came home on G-VZON, and here are some photographs of that aircraft on the morning flight GR670 from Guernsey on 13th May 2015. It passed over Hyde at 9.39am.



Saturday 27 June 2015

Airbus A380-861

The evening Emirates flight EK20 from Manchester to Dubai on 10th June 2015 passing over Hyde at 9.28pm having just taken off from Manchester Airport and catching the light from the setting sun.
The aircraft registration number is A6-EEM

Friday 26 June 2015

Friday's Ferrari

This is a scene inside a pit garage at Silverstone in July 1999 at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting. All three of these cars took part in the Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge race.
Car number 95 is the 1972 Ferrari 312P, serial number 0888, of Englebert Stieger. There's no number 95 in the programme of the event but Christoph Stieger was down to drive number 55, a Ferrari 250 GTO, and appears to have driven the 312P instead. Car number 76 is a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, serial number 16363, owned and driven that day by Nicolaus Springer, who also owned the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO behind it, serial number 4153GT which was driven in the race by Peter Bradfield and Andrew Hall.

Thursday 25 June 2015

Austin Healey 100

I remember when this car was introduced in the early 1950s and, together with the Triumph TR2 and a little later the MGA, it was an object of desire for a soon-to-be teenager.
It's a 1954 Austin Healey 100 and is pictured here at Oulton Park in July 1995 at the HSCC Summer Race Meeting where it was driven by Tim Hassell in the Richardson Hosken Classic Sports Car Championship race. This car appeared at the Practical Classics Restoration Show at the NEC in March this year.

Wednesday 24 June 2015

Alfa Romeo T33/3

This was one of the cars displayed by the auctioneers Coys at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.
It's a 1969 Alfa Romeo T33/3, looking in rather a sorry state. The cars were not successful in 1969 but improved in 1970, finally coming good in 1971 as this Wikipedia article tells you.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Aston Martin Le Mans

This car was at the SeeRed race meeting organised by the VSCC at Donington Park in June 2008, although it wasn't competing in any of the races.
It's a 1929 Aston Martin Le Mans model, a works car originally designated LM3. The car was raced in the RAC TT at Ards in Northern Ireland where it crashed and subsequently re-bodied with a short tailed two-seater sports body and used as a works demonstrator, then in 1930 was given a long tailed racing body and raced again by the works. In 1932 it was re-bodied yet again and sold as a four-seater International Sports model.

Monday 22 June 2015

Regal Tourer

This is a car photographed at The Village, Cheadle, before the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club, in June 1993.
It's a 1909 Regal Tourer, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it was entered by Mark Lewis and Jeremy Goodman of Crumpsall, Manchester. I've not been able to find out much about the Regal on the Internet either - all that Wikipedia says about it is that the Regal was a United States automobile produced by the Regal Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan from 1907 to 1918.

Sunday 21 June 2015

Renault 750 4CV

This is another car seen at the Northern Classic Car show at the G-Mex centre in Manchester in August 1991.
It's a 1950 Renault 750 4CV on the stand of the Renault Owners Club and the brochure of the event says that the car was built at Renault's factory in Acton, London.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Chevrolet Bel Air

Here's another photograph sent to me by our youngest son, David, from New Jersey.
It's a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, which makes it a second generation car, somewhat modified if the air scoop on the hood is anything to go by.

Friday 19 June 2015

Friday's Ferrari

Here's one of the Ferraris that took part in the Intermarque Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May 2015.
It's a 1996 Ferrari F355 Challenge, and was driven in the race by Tim Mogridge.

Here's Tim Mogridge at Druids Corner during the morning practice session.....

.....and at the Knickerbrook chicane during the race.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Austin Healey Sebring Sprite

This car was entered in the Italy v Rest of the World race for 1960s World Endurance Cars at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.
It's one of the two Austin Healey Sebring Sprites entered in the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hour race. This car, driven by Paul Hawkins and John Rhodes, finished in 12th place overall and first in class, covering 278 laps - compared to the winner's 348 laps (a NART Ferrari 250LM driven by Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt). The second car, driven by Rauno Aaltonen and Clive Baker, expired late in the race having covered 256 laps.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Cooper Climax T53

The 1962 British Grand Prix took place at Aintree on 21st July and this is one of photographs I took in the paddock at Aintree at the Friday practice for the race.
It's Jackie Lewis in the Ecurie Galloise Cooper Climax T53 in which he qualified 15th on the grid and finished the race in 10th place. Jackie Lewis had a very short career in Grand Prix racing, and you can read about it here.

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Talbot Lago T150C

This car took part in the Redgate Mug Race for Standard & Modified Pre-war Sports Cars at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.
It's a 1939 Talbot Lago T150C and was driven at this meeting by the owner, John Guyatt. The only other detail about the car in the programme of the event is that it had a 4 litre engine. I can't find out much about the T150C, but a Bonhams article about a T150C with a Pourtout Aerocoupé body which came up for auction contained the following information:

'In 1934, he (Tony Lago) tasked his engineer, Walter Brecchia, to upgrade the existing model Talbot T120 to the T150, by designing a new hemispherical combustion chamber cylinder head for the three-liter engine. To accommodate the new engine, Lago built three new cars and entered them in Concours d’Elegance in the Bois de Boulogne in June 1934. Tony’s theatrical background was evident. The three cars, painted in the red, white and blue of the French tricolor, were accompanied by three well-known female racing drivers, all in elegantly tailored outfits the color of their cars, topped off with berets. Under the hood lurked the old T120 engine, the new head not yet being ready. The following weekend, Tony’s sideshow was presented to the elite of the French motoring industry at an affair at the Prince of Wales hotel, after which the three ladies again paraded their cars in another concours sponsored by a Paris newspaper.

Lago ultimately got his revised cylinder head and continued to try and give his Talbots a performance image despite slow sales. A privateer entered an ungainly three-liter T150 sedan at Le Mans in 1935 and ran as high as 11th before retiring. The next year French authorities changed the class displacement limits for sports car racing with breaks at 2 and 4 liters. Lago responded with a 4-liter version of the T150, but 1936 was neither successful in racing nor sales, as the recession in France deepened. Lago’s flair for showmanship was not to be denied, even under the circumstances. In the fall, he arranged for a new hemi-head T150 to attempt to pack 100 miles into an hour on the banked portion of the Montlhèry course. The foray was successful and Talbot-Lago’s stature grew in the sporting community.

After staving off bankruptcy, it all came right in 1937, with a new, lightweight T150 C. The lightweight and the older 4-liter both began winning and racked up successes at Marseilles, where they finished 1-2-3-5, Tunisia, Montlhèry (1-2-3) and the British Tourist Trophy.'


Monday 15 June 2015

BMW Isetta

I took this photograph in September 1998 in Heaton Park, Manchester, at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally organised by the Greater Manchester Transport Society. Most of the vehicles at these rallies were buses, coaches and commercial vehicles but there were also classes for cars, and this is a vehicle that was entered in Class C which was for Cars Post 1960.
The entry in the programme of the event says:

C14     BMW, 1300 plus Isetta, 1961          HSV 994
             Entered by Charles B Thorpe, Shaw, Oldham
             Mr Thorpe says he bought the car from an optician as it was love at first sight,
             or he must have been blind.

I think the programme entry must have been a misprint - the only BMW Isettas made were the 250 and 300 using the 250cc and 298cc BMW motorcycle single-cylinder engine. They also made the 600 (with a 582cc twin-cylinder motorcycle engine) which, although similar at the front had a more normal looking 4-wheel layout. The 250 and 300 had four wheels, but the rear ones had a track of only 25cm (or 19in). So the car above is presumably a 300.

The BMW Isetta was also produced in the United Kingdom under licence from BMW, but weren't really popular until a 3-wheel version (with a single wheel at the rear) was introduced meaning that they could be classed as 3-wheel motorcycles which had the advantage of lower taxation, and they could also be driven with a motorcycle licence.

The car in the photograph appears to be a German model as the English version was right-hand drive and the door (the whole of the front of the car opened to allow access) was hinged on the right-hand side of the car.

Because of the rounded shape of these vehicles they became popularly known as 'Bubble Cars'.

Sunday 14 June 2015

Waiting to be Unleashed

This is a photograph I took at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park last month and it's of the field for the AMOC Intermarque Championship being led round to the rolling start by the BMW course car.
The field is being led down from Hill Top towards the Knickerbrook chicane and you can see a number of Aston Martins, with a sprinkling of Porsches and Ferraris, and a lone Ford Falcon Sprint just coming over Hill Top.

Saturday 13 June 2015

Hispano Suiza

This is one of the cars entered in the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club in May 1992.
It's a 1915 Hispano Suiza T30, here seen approaching the start line on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester. The only information the programme of the event has about this car is that it was entered by Brian Dearden-Briggs of Mirfield in Yorkshire.

Friday 12 June 2015

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car photographed in the Ferrari Owners Club parking area at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.
It's a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder, serial number 1411GT, owned at that time by Martin G Emmison. As the name suggests the car was designed mainly for the North American market.

Thursday 11 June 2015

Straker Squire

This is one of the cars entered in the Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage Trophy race at Oulton Park in June 1982.
It's a 1919 Straker Squire, a 4-litre, 6-cylinder engined car that was originally driven at Brooklands by Bertie Kensington-Moir. It was driven at this meeting by Adrian Liddell, seen here approaching Lodge Corner.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Les Val des Terres Hill Climb, Guernsey, May 2015

The hill climb organised by the Guernsey Kart & Motor Club took place an Les Val des Terres at St Peter Port during our recent visit to Guernsey and I managed to see some of the action. I took quite a number of photographs and thanks to the results list posted by the Club and the report printed in the Guernsey Press I can identify some of the class winners that I photographed.
The fastest time of the day was set by the winner of the Racing Cars 1601 to 2000cc class with a time of 27.84 seconds was Darren Warwick in the Moore Stephens Dallara F399, seen here crossing the finish line on one of his runs.

Second place overall with 28.21 seconds and winner of the Racing Cars 1101 to 1600cc class was Nick Saunders in his E.I. Sturdza Reynick.

Winner of the Motorcycles, 501 to 600cc class with 33.62 seconds was Oliver Holmes on his Bikers Jersey KTM 570. Here he's seen rounding the final bend before the finishing line.

Tony Simon put in a time of 36.00 seconds to win the Road Going Specialist Production Cars class with his Westfield.

There were several classes for karts and the 250 Karts Single class was won by Daniel Ridley in his Tarmac Services Anderson Maverick 250 with a time of 31.13 seconds.

In the Sports Libre Saloons Rally Cars 1601cc and over class the winner was Stevie Leonard with a time of 35.33 seconds in a Ford Escort Mk2.

The Motor Cycles 126 to 250cc class was won in a time of 41.21 seconds by Mark Ingoruille on an Aprilia RS 250.

Ian Le Messurier in his Lemtech DB03 won the Sports Libre up to 1600cc class in a time of 29.75 seconds.

All the photographs I took that day are in an album in my Flickr file.

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Jowett Jupiter Rochdale

This is a car I photographed at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester, in August 1989.
I recorded it at the time as a 1955 Jowett Jupiter Rochdale, or in other words it's a Jowett Jupiter with a body made by Rochdale Motor Panels & Engineering, who at that time produced glass fibre bodies to fit a variety or cars - more usually Austin 7 or the Ford 10 and Popular. The car appears to have been displayed on the stand of the Rochdale Owners Club, but the brochure of the event doesn't show that club as having a stand that year. There was a stand for the Jowett Car Club Northern Section, but there's no mention in the brochure of this Rochdale-bodied car. Incidentally Jowett cars were made in Bradford, Yorkshire, and the Rochdale bodies were made (of course) in Rochdale, Lancashire, which is just over 20 miles away on the other side of the Pennines.

Monday 8 June 2015

Delorean

I had just left the house one day last week to go and do some shopping when I saw this car pulling away from a house just up the road.
It's a Delorean DMC-12 from the early 1980s and the first one that I've actually seen. The Delorean has an interesting history and is, of course, famous for its appearance (and disappearance!) in the 'Back to the Future' film series. Come to think of it, it might not have been last week I saw it, it might be next week.

Sunday 7 June 2015

Airbus A330

This is an aircraft I've been looking out for since I found out about the flightradar24 site and on 13th May 2015 I spotted it for the first time approaching Manchester Airport.
It's an Airbus A330-243 of Etihad Airways in the livery of Premiership Football Club Manchester City
It passed over Hyde at 4.44pm on that day when landing at Manchester Airport
It was flight EY21 from Abu Dhabi and the aircraft registration number is A6-EYE
Etihad Airways is the main sponsor of Manchester City Football Club, and the managing director Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is, I understand, the brother of the owner of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Saturday 6 June 2015

Cooper MkI T4

After they had produced their first 500cc racing car Charles and John Cooper toyed with the idea of producing a small sports car based on a similar chassis and in 1947 built one car using a twin-cylinder Triumph motor cycle engine. The project was never pursued, partly because the Triumph engine lacked the power required, but also because of the need to devote more time to developing the race cars. This 1947 Cooper MkI T4 was part of the display of 500cc cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.
This article by the 500 Owners Association tells you something about the car.

Friday 5 June 2015

Friday's Ferrari

Here's another of the old photographs, this time from the British Empire Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in April 1956.
It's a 1954 Ferrari 735 S Monza, serial number 0444M 54 which was owned and raced by Herbert Mackay-Frazer and had a 4-cylinder 2942cc engine. Only three of this model were produced, and here's what auto.ferrari.com says about the 735 S.

Thursday 4 June 2015

Bristol K5G

This is one of the entrants in the Class K Double Deck Buses pre 1950 in the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally at Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1993.
It's not listed in the programme of the event, but it's a 1938 Bristol K5G with a Roe L27/28R body and was originally in service with Keighley-West Yorkshire Services Ltd.

The photograph above shows the vehicle arriving in the display area and the one below shows it later, after someone had been having a play with the destination blinds.


Wednesday 3 June 2015

Maserati V8RI

This is a car which was for a time part of the Donington Collection at the Donington Park racing circuit museum and I photographed it in May 1989.
It's a Maserati V8RI (the 'RI' denoting 'Ruote Independente', or 'Independent Suspension'), one of four cars built in 1935/36, and this is the last one, chassis number 4504. It was bought by the French/Argentine racing driver Marquis George Raphaël Béthenod de las Casas (better known as 'Raph') who sold the car after participating with it in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. Like the other 3 cars it was raced in the USA for many more years.

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Minerva

Here's a car that took part in the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage car run in May 1987 organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club. The photograph was taken on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.
It's a Belgian car, a 1912 Minerva, and the program of the event said this about the car:

22     1912 Minerva
          Reg: HS 457 4 cylinder 38 hp
          (Nigel Bradshaw, Lytham)
Minervas were beefy Belgian racers of which
this blue brute is a superb specimen. They
used Knight sleeve valve engines of more than
2000 cc, and in the 1914 TT came second, third
and fifth.

It's interesting to look at the result of that 1914 Tourist Trophy race. It was run on 10-11 June 1914 and covered 16 laps of the 60.35 km Isle of Man course, a total of 965 km. The result was:
1. Kenelm Lee Guinness     Sunbeam             10 hr 35 min 49 sec at an average speed of 90.83 kph
2. Christian Riecken           Minerva               10 hr 57 min 38 sec
3. Léon Molon                    Minerva               11 hr 22 min 20 sec
4. Richard S Witchell          Straker Squire      11 hr 22 min 50 sec
5. Jean Porporato               Minerva               11 hr 40 min 44 sec
6. W O Bentley                  DFP 12/40           12 hr 24 min 01 sec

The current rules for F1 say that the race distance is 'the smallest number of complete laps that exceeds 305 kilometres' (except for the Monaco GP which is 78 laps, or 260.5 km) and the race cannot exceed 2 hours duration. So the drivers of 1914 had to race for over five times as long and over three times the distance that the current drivers have to cover. The Le Mans 24 hour race and other long distance races are obviously longer, both in time and distance, but these involve regular changes of driver.

Monday 1 June 2015

Guernsey, May 2015

Another visit to Guernsey a couple of weeks ago to see our grandchildren.....
.....Edward.....

.....and Eliza.

We spent some time in the garden.
Edward with Grandad.
Edward with Grandma.
Mabel the cat even joined us at times.

Eliza with mummy.....
.....and with Daddy.

We went into St Peter Port for Seafront Sunday and Anna couldn't resist trying on a hat at one of the stalls.
No comment!

After lunch we relaxed for a while.....



.....and the excitement of the Monaco Grand Prix enthralled Grandma and Anna.

On the Tuesday before leaving for home we went for a walk through Saumarez Park.....
.....Eliza in the buggy and Edward on his scooter.

And we went to look at the ducks.