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Monday 29 February 2016

Ford Thames

I've showed photographs previously of some of the vehicles in the Pallot Steam, Transport & General Museum in Jersey which we visited in May 2013, and here's another of them.
It's a 1962 Ford Thames 15cwt, and you can read about it here. On 10 November 2015 I showed a photograph of another Ford Thames 15cwt which had been made into a replica of a Team Lotus transporter.

Sunday 28 February 2016

Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider

This car competed in the QED Standard Road Sports Championship race at the HSCC Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992.
It's a 1964 Alfa Romeo Spider and was driven in the race by Bill Croxon. It has a 1.6 litre engine.

Saturday 27 February 2016

Alfa Romeo 8C-35

This car took part in the Magneti Marelli UK Race for Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.
It's the 1935 Alfa Romeo 8C-35 of Paul Grist, and the Ferrari badges on the car's bonnet signify that it is one of the ex-Scuderia Ferrari cars from the time when Enzo Ferrari had control of the Alfa Romeo racing programme.

Friday 26 February 2016

Friday's Ferrari

Here's a Ferrari in the pit garage at Donington Park at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting in June 2003.
It's William Binnie's 1971 Ferrari 312 P, usually known as the 312 PB to distinguish it from the 1969 312 P, and it was driven in the Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge Race by Ray Bellm. The serial number of this car is 0880.

Thursday 25 February 2016

Rileys at Oulton Park (4)

On 10 February 2016 I showed some photographs of Rileys in action at the VSCC's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 2015, and here are the remaining photographs I took of Rileys on the track at that meeting.
This is James Ricketts in his 1929 Riley 9 Monoposto at Lodge Corner in Race 6.
Again at Lodge Corner in Race 6, this is Ralf Emmerling in his 1928 Riley Brooklands.
Race 7, and leaving Lodge Corner and dropping down into Deer Leap, here's Roland Woodtli in his 1935 Riley 15/6 Special.
Again in Race 7 and at the same spot, it's James Whitmore in his 1936 Riley 12/4 leading Marcus Frieder's 1934 Riley 12/4, John McAvoy's 1936 Riley 12/4 Special and Edward Harris in his 1927 Invicta High Chassis.
Still Race 7 and this time it's Tony Canny on the left in his 1935 Riley TT Sprite and Robert Wardale on the right in his 1936 Riley Special.
Another photograph from Race 7 and it's Leonard Lord in his 1936 Riley Falcon.
Here's Durward Lawson in Race 8 on the start/finish straight in his 1937 Riley Special.

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Maserati T61

Here's a car I photographed in the pit garage at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.
It took part in the 1950s Sports Car Race and it's a 1960 Maserati T61, entered by R & Mrs M Smith and driven in the race by Matt Gillies.
Here you can see the tubular space frame chassis which gives the car its nickname of 'Maserati Birdcage'.

The Type 61 had a 4-cylinder 2.9 litre engine instead of the 4-cylinder 2 litre engine of the Type 60, and according to Luigi Orsini & Franco Zagari's book 'Maserati - a complete history' the entire production of the Type 61 went to the American market.

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Kurtis 500S

I photographed this car at the VSCC's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.
It's a 1954 Kurtis 500 S and was entered in the 50's Sports Car Race by Christopher Keen
Here's Christopher Keen during the race at Britten's chicane, followed by the Aston Martin DB3S of Hubert Fabri.

Monday 22 February 2016

Maserati Barchetta

The car below was amongst the cars displayed by the Maserati Club in the area set aside for the various owners' clubs at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.
It's a 1992 Maserati Barchetta Corsa and you can read about it in this extract from the Auto Italia magazine.

Sunday 21 February 2016

De Dion Bouton

Here's a car I photographed on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1990.
It's not shown in the programme of the event, but it's an 1899 De Dion Bouton Voiturette with a single-cylinder 3½ hp engine. The car took part in the following year's run when the owner was shown in the programme as W.B.Parkinson of Atherton.

Saturday 20 February 2016

Auto Union?

In May 2001 Audi brought several cars to Donington Park to be demonstrated at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting and on 2 December 2012 I showed some photographs of the rebuilt Auto Union C-type and D-type cars like those that had competed at Donington Park in 1937 and 1938. The photographs below show one of the other cars which took part in the display in the paddock and the demonstration on the track.
It's a car that was in the Donington Park museum when I visited in May 1989 when I took the photograph below:
I seem to recall that the story of this car in the museum was that it was an Auto Union E-type that the factory had designed to challenge the Mercedes-Benz W165 1½ litre voiturette that had won the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix, but production of the car had been halted by the Second World War. Tom Wheatcroft was said to have acquired it as a chassis with engine, and a body was designed and built to show how the car would probably have looked had it been completed in 1940. The Auto Union factory ended up in East Germany after the war and all the racing cars and equipment were removed to Russia. There are suggestions that this car is of post-war East German or Russian manufacture, possibly with the help of pre-war Auto Union design technology, but Audi seemed to be sure enough of its Auto Union origins to have included it in this display at Donington Park in 2001, though I can't find any mention of it in the commemorative 'The Return of Auto Union' brochure or the programme of the event. In trying to piece together this story of the car I've come across three interesting websites, on supercars.net, 8w.forix.com and an Autosport forum. I think my recollection of the car may be from a book about the Donington Collection which I bought on one of my visits there, but unfortunately I can't find it at the moment. If I do come across it and it mentions this car I'll update this story.
This is the car on its demonstration run at Donington Park taken from the inside of Coppice Corner.

Friday 19 February 2016

Friday's Ferrari

On 16 October 2015 I showed a couple of photographs of a Ferrari that took part in the Historic Car Championship Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club Autumn Historic Car Races at Oulton Park in September 1992. Here's two more photographs of the same car at that meeting.
It's Robert Brooks' 1954 Ferrari 750 Monza, the winner of the 1954 Tourist Trophy race at Dundrod, and was driven at this meeting by Tony Dron.
Its serial number is 0440MD

Thursday 18 February 2016

Katie May

I took this photograph at Salford Quays on 27 September 2014.
It's the former 47ft Watson Class RNLI Lifeboat 'Kathleen Mary', now renamed 'Katie May'. She was built in 1959 and served at Newhaven from 1959 to 1977, Porthdinllaen from 1979 to 1987, Appledore from 1987 to 1988 and then in the Reserve fleet at Penlee till 1989 when she was sold and renamed 'Katie May'.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Morris Cowley/MG 'Old Number One'

This car was one of the vehicles on display at the Heritage Motor Centre's Roadshow at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.
Known as 'Old Number One', it's not the first MG to be built, but apparently it's the first one to be built with the purpose of competing in motor sports events. The Morris Cowley bullnose origin of the car is evident and you can read here the MG Owners' Club story of the car.

When the British Leyland Motor Corporation was set up in 1968 it was decided to find out how many old vehicles were held by the various companies which were part of the new Corporation. Nearly 100 were found and in 1975 Leyland Historic Vehicles was formed to maintain this fleet of vehicles. The British Motor Heritage Trust was formed in 1983 which then led to the Heritage Motor Centre museum at Gaydon being opened in 1993. In 2000 the trust expanded to include the whole of the British motor industry and the museum now has a collection of nearly 300 vehicles, though it closed for refurbishment in November last year and was due to reopen on 13 February 2016 as the British Motor Museum.

Tuesday 16 February 2016

500cc Formula 3 Cars

I've featured the 500cc Formula 3 cars of the 1950 twice before, at a 1982 Oulton Park meeting on 2 April 2013 and at a 2011 meeting at Donington Park on 11 August 2015. Here are photographs of some more of the 500cc cars at that Donington Park SeeRed meeting in May 2011.
Rodney Delves' 1952 Kieft CK52
Sir John Chisholm's 1952 Arnott 500
George Shackleton's 1952 Cooper Mk VI
Neil Hodges' 1954 Cooper Mk VIII
Xavier Kingsland's 1953 Staride Mk III
Frederick Harper's 1950 Cooper Mk IV
Mrs Shirley Monro's 1950/51 Cooper Mk IV
Mark Palmer's 1956 Wishart Mk II
Roy Hunt's 1953/54 Martin 500
David Whiteside's 1953 Cooper Mk VII
Vernon Williamson's 1950 JP Prototype
John Turner's 1955 Cooper Mk IX
Nigel Challis's 1954 Cooper Mk VIII

More details of the cars, and all aspects of 500cc Formula 3 racing can be found on the 500 Owners Association website.

Monday 15 February 2016

Motor Sport

The monthly magazine 'Motor Sport' has a regular feature entitled 'You Were There' where they invite readers to send photographs they have taken at motoring events in the past and which they think may be of interest to other readers. Some months ago I sent a series of photographs I had taken at the 1962 British Grand Prix at Aintree and when I got the March 2016 issue recently there, to my surprise, were my photographs:

Sunday 14 February 2016

Connaught

Finance was always a problem for Rodney Clarke's Connaught racing team and only two years after making history when Tony Brooks won the 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix in a Connaught B Type the team was disbanded when the money ran out.
Here's Rodney Clarke at the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting in September 1955, just a month before the Syracuse race, in the Connaught B Type, chassis B1, which Tony Brooks drove in that race. In the Gold Cup race the car was driven by Reg Parnell. who finished in fourth place.

Saturday 13 February 2016

Karrier

I photographed this vehicle in Heaton Park, Manchester at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in September 1995.
The programme of the event describes it as follows:

Karrier 73 A WRT, 1955                                                                                 WTE 893
Entered by   L A Reid, Bacup
Used by Lancashire County Fire Brigade until 1968 and sold to ICI at Fleetwood
Acquired by present owner in 1986.

I've not been able to find out much about this vehicle, except that 'WRT' or 'WrT' seems to stand for 'water tender'. The Karrier Wikipedia entry infers that it's based on the Karrier Gamecock or Bantam.

Friday 12 February 2016

Friday's Ferrari

This car was one of the competitors in the Louis Vuitton '50s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.
It's the 1959 Ferrari 196 S Dino of Kerry Manolas, driven in the race by Matthew Martin. The serial number is 0776, and according to barchetta.cc is the only 196 S Dino to be built. The official Ferrari description of the model says that it had a 2 litre V6 engine, but the programme of the event shows the engine capacity as 2485cc.

Thursday 11 February 2016

Bentley

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.
It's a Bentley, but I'm not an expert on Bentleys and I don't know much about it except that it looks like it might be one of the Derby Bentleys built at the Rolls Royce factory there in the 1930's after Rolls Royce bought Bentley from the receivers when Bentley had gone into liquidation in 1931.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Rileys at Oulton Park (3)

I've shown photographs (on 17 Jan 2016 and 26 Jan 2016) of Rileys in the paddock at the VSCC's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 2015, and here are some photographs of Rileys in action on the track that day.
This is Race 1 and it's Durward Lawson's 1937 Riley Special at Knickerbrook on the short Fosters Circuit.
Race 1 again and it's Greg Lerigo's 1932/35 Riley Special at Knickerbrook leading Malcolm Underwood's 1937 Delahaye 135
Still Race 1 and Dr David Pryke's 1935 Riley 12/4 TT Sprite Replica heads up Clay Hill towards Druids Corner.
Here's John McAvoy in Race 1 in his 1936 Riley 12/4 Special on his way up Clay Hill
This one's Race 4 and it's David Lamb in his 1929 Riley Brooklands at Druids Corner
Again at Druids Corner and this time it's Andy Bush in Race 5 in his 1935 Riley TT Sprite Replica

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Austin Healey 100S

This car was on the stand of the Austin Healey Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at Belle Vue, Manchester in September 1986.
It's an Austin Healey 100S from the mid-1950s and has the two-tone white and blue finish which the majority of these cars had. I remember John Dalton racing one with this colour scheme in 1955 and 1956.