1933 Barnato Hassan Bentley

This was one of the competitors in the Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

It's Keith Schellenberg's 1933 Barnato Hassan Bentley with a 6-cylinder inline 7,983cc engine. Walter Hassan was a mechanic at Bentley in the 1920s at the time when their 3 litre, 4½ litre and 6.6 litre cars were a force to be reckoned with, winning the Le Mans 24 Hour race 4 years in succession from 1927 to 1930. He had been mechanic to Woolf Barnato and when the Bentley Company went into liquidation and was taken over by Rolls Royce in 1931 he went to work for Barnato. In 1933 he designed a new chassis frame and built a car round this and the 6½ litre (actually 6,597cc) engine from the Bentley ‘Old Number One’ Speed Six that won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1929 and 1930, and this car became known as the Barnato Hassan Special. It was raced at Brooklands, but not by Woolf Barnato who didn’t race there following the death of Clive Dunfee in a race in 1932. After serious damage to the 6½ litre engine at Brooklands in 1934 it was replaced by an 8 litre (7,983cc) unit and the car was rebuilt as a single seater in 1936, in which form Oliver Bertram lapped Brooklands with it at 143.11 mph – just short of John Cobb’s 143.44 mph in the Napier Railton.

1955 Lancia D50

This car took part in 'A Demonstration of Italian Racing Cars' at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's a 1955 2½ litre V8 Lancia D50 recreation, at that time owned by Tom Wheatcroft and kept in his museum at Donington Park. Following the withdrawal of the Lancia team from racing at the end of the 1955 season all the D50 cars and spares were handed over to Ferrari with the exception of one car which went to the Fiat Museum and one which went to the Biscaretti Museum. Ferrari raced the cars as Lancia-Ferraris in the 1956 season with some modifications and Juan Fangio won the World Championship that season. For the 1957 season the cars were modified to such an extent that it was redesignated as a Ferrari 801, but didn't enjoy any great success. At the end of the 1957 season with the introduction of the Ferrari 246 F1 car (with which Mike Hawthorn won the 1958 World Championship title) the cars were broken up and the parts stored at the Ferrari factory. From the 1990s these parts have been used to recreate, I understand, seven examples of the car, including one to the specification of the 1956 Lancia-Ferrari.

1957 Maserati 300S

This car took part in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1957 Maserati 300S, chassis #3074 of Australian Kerry Manolas that was driven in the race by Stephen Griswold. The Maserati 300S was powered by a 2,991cc 6-cylinder engine that was based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a longer stroke, and took part in the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1957. The car was originally bought by Brazilian driver Antonio Mendes de Barros and stayed in South America till the 1970s when it was acquired by Australian Bruce Spicer, then via Bob Jane and John R Sheppard to Kerry Manolas. In 1994 it was bought by Mark Knopfler.

1961 BRM P57

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Aintree 200 meeting in April 1961.

It's the 1961 BRM P57 that was driven to third place in the race by Graham Hill. 1961 was the first year of the 1½ litre Formula that replaced the 2½ litre limit that had lasted from 1954 to 1960. BRM, like the other British teams had started preparations for the new Formula too late and had been caught on the back foot by the Ferrari team who had got their new Ferrari 156 with its 1½ litre V8 engine up and running by the first race of the season at Monaco. Both BRM and Coventry Climax had new V8 engines on the drawing board but the Coventry Climax engine wasn't ready till the second half of the 1961 season, and the BRM not until 1962. In 1961 the BRM team used a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc Coventry Climax FPF engine.

1938 Lagonda V12 Le Mans

This car competed in the Bill Phillips Race for Standard & Modified Pre-war Sports Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2019.

It's Mark Butterworth's 1938 Lagonda V12 Le Mans, two of which were built for the 1939 Le Mans 24 Hour race, and afterwards several of the short chassis Lagonda Rapide models were converted to Le Mans Replicas.

The cars that competed at  Le Mans in 1939 had a 4,479cc V12 engine with 4 SU carburettors and finished in third and fourth places driven by Arthur Dobson/ Charles Brackenbury and Lord Selsdon/ Lord William Walleran respectively.

Here's Mark Butterworth at Britten's chicane during the morning practice session.....

.....and here at Druids Corner during the race.

Ferrari Challenge

The Ferrari Challenge series was initiated in 1993 as a result of a number of Ferrari owners expressing a wish to be involved in racing their cars. The Ferrari 348 was the first car to be chosen and modified to make it suitable for track racing, being designated as the Ferrari 348 Challenge model. As new Ferrari models are introduced the car used in the Challenge series is changed every few years. At the Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017 one of each of the five Challenge cars to have competed in the series up to 2017 was on display in the International Paddock.

This is the original Challenge car, the Ferrari 348 Challenge that was used between 1993 and 1995 and has a 3,405cc Ferrari F119 V8 engine.

From 1995 to 2000 the Ferrari F355 Challenge contested the series and is powered by the 3,496cc Ferrari F129 V8 engine.

In 2000 the Ferrari 360 Modena Challenge took over till 2006 and has the 3,596cc F131 V8 engine.

The next car, featuring from 2006 to 2011 was the Ferrari F430 Challenge, and this car has the 4,308cc Ferrari F136E V8 engine.

The car used from 2011 to 2017 is the Ferrari 458 Challenge and this is powered by the 4,497cc Ferrari F136 V8 engine.

I took all these photographs early in the morning after what had been a very chilly night and the windows of all the cars were all still frozen. Since 2017 two further challenge models have been introduced, the Ferrari 488 Challenge and the 488 Challenge Evo.

1933 Talbot 105

This car was in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's a 1933 Talbot 105, chassis 33880, and is a replica of the Talbot AV 105 Alpine Team cars with a 6-cylinder inline 2,969cc engine, number AV336.

1966 Ginetta G4

This car was displayed on the stand of the Ginetta Owners Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1990.

The Ginetta G4 was introduced in 1961 with a 4-cylinder inline Ford 105E engine and a fibre glass body and the DVLA record says that this car has a 1,498cc engine. The Ginetta Owners Club caters for owners of these cars and enthusiasts.

1968 Lola T70 Mk3B

I photographed this car on the straight between Priory and Brooklands during the qualifying session for the AT & T Istel Steigenberger Supersports Cup Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the Hulme Automotive 1968 Lola T70 Mk3B being driven by Nigel Hulme. It has a 4,991cc Chevrolet V8 engine and was formerly owned by Joakim Bonnier, possibly chassis SL76/145.

1997 TVR Chimaera 450

 I photographed this car in one of the car parks at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2018.

It's a 1997 TVR Chimaera 450, one of 5,256 produced between 1992 and 2003. There were four different sized engines available over the lifetime of the Chimaera, all based on the 3½ litre Rover V8 unit, and this one has the 4,546cc version.

1950 BRM P15

I took this photograph at the now defunct Donington Park Museum in March 1996.

It's a 1950 BRM P15, originally known as a BRM V16 MkI, and is chassis no. 3. It's got the light green finish that was first favoured but which was later changed to a much darker shade of green. The P15 had a supercharged 1,496cc V16 engine which was claimed to achieve 600bhp. It was notably unsuccessful in the 1950 and 1951 racing seasons, retiring from many races, but just when the Mk2 (P30) cars were starting to become more reliable the Grand Prix regulations were changed from 4½ litres unsupercharged/1½ litres supercharged to 2 litres unsupercharged for the 1952 season, thus rendering the cars obsolete. They were driven in Formula Libre races for a few years, and the only time I saw one in competitive action was in the Formula Libre race at the 1955 Aintree 200 meeting when Peter Collins won the race in P30/2.

1960 OSCA FJ

This car took part in the Miller Oils/ AMOC Historic Formula Junior race at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

Numbered 21 in the programme of the event, it's the 1960 OSCA Formula Junior car of Peter Mullen and has a 4-cylinder inline Fiat 1,098cc engine. The OSCA company was established by the Maserati brothers at the end of their 10 year contract with Adolfo Orsi, to whom they had sold the Maserati concern in 1937. Formula Junior racing was initiated in 1958 by Giovanni Lurani as an affordable introduction to single seater racing and was initially dominated by the Fiat-engined Italian cars, particularly Stanguellini. British interest remained for some time with the 500cc Formula 3 class of racing, but when they turned their attention to Formula Junior cars such as Elva and Lola started to make an impression, and when Cooper and Lotus introduced their mid-engined cars they became the ones to beat.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the Aston Martin GT Challenge race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017.

It's a 2009 Ferrari F430 Challenge, seen here in the scrutineering bay.

It was driven in the 50 minute long race by Richard Cook and Harvey Stanley.

The Ferrari F430 Challenge, which has a 4,308cc V8 engine, replaced the 360 Challenge and was produced from 2007 to 2001, being succeeded by the 458 Challenge.

Here's the car at Old Hall Corner during the early morning qualifying session.

During the race I walked to several different parts of the circuit, and this photograph was taken at Druids Corner.....

.....and here just about to enter Knickerbrook corner.

1921 Humber 11.4 Coupé

This was one of the participants in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in May 1992 and is pictured in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the run.

It's a 1921 Humber 11.4 Coupé, also known as a Doctors Coupé, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it was entered by Brian Gore of Tandle Mills, Royton. It should have a 4-cylinder inline 1,743cc engine which gives 11.4hp.

1959 Elva Courier

Photographs of two 1959 Elva Couriers here that I took at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

This is an early morning (8.35am) photo of Paul Andrew's 1959 Elva Courier in the scrutineering bay, Around 400 of the MkI and MkII Courier were built between 1958 and 1961 when the company went into voluntary liquidation, the MkI cars having 1500cc MGA or Riley engines, and the MkII cars the 1600cc MGA engines. The programme of the event shows this car to have a 1500cc engine.

I took this photograph in the paddock a little later in the morning.

The car was due to race in the Equipe Pre '63 race and here it is at Druids Corner during the morning qualifying session being driven (according to the results sheet) by Tom Andrew, who also drove the car in the race.....

.....and here's the car at Britten's chicane during the afternoon race leading the 1961 Austin Healey 3000 of Mike Thorne.

This is the other Elva Courier I photographed, Tom Andrew's 1959 Elva Courier, also with a 1500cc engine, which was listed in the programme as being a reserve for the Equipe GTS race, but doesn't appear on the results sheet.

1953 Cooper Bristol T23

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 - originally known as the Cooper Bristol MkII - of John Beasley. The car has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.

Behind the Cooper Bristol is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.

1956 Maserati 250F

The featured marque at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was Maserati with particular emphasis on the 250F and twelve of these cars are listed in the Celebration Maserati Invitation Race with a further four being shown as static display or track demonstration cars. This is one of the cars returning to the paddock after a practice session.

It's Stefan Rettenmaier's 1956 Maserati 250F, chassis 2520, and was driven for the Maserati team by José Froilán Gonzales in the Argentine Grand Prix in January of 1956 and by Pablo Gulle in the Buenos Aires City Grand Prix two weeks later. It was then sold to Australian Stan Jones (father of later World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones) who raced the car 'down under' with considerable success during the rest of the 1950s. In 1963 it was brought to the UK by Colin Crabbe and it passed through various other hands before spending some time in the private collection of Giulio Dubbini in Padova until it was acquired by Stefan Rettenmaier.

Local Sightings

 Photographs of a couple of cars I spotted round Hyde one day last month.

This is a 2019 Lamborghini Huracán LP640-4 Evo and has a 5,204cc V10 engine.

This is a 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX with a 2,457cc Flat-4 engine.

1946 Invicta Black Prince

This car was one of the entrants in the Cheshire Concours d'Esprit at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2017.

It's a 1946 Invicta Black Prince, one of only 17 cars produced, and this information sheet in the windscreen tells you all about the car:

£3,000 in 1946 is worth almost £126,500 today.

Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000 celebrated 50 years of the Formula 1 World Championship, which started with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1950. There was a display of a representative selection of Formula 1 cars from those 50 years and here's one which saw action in 1979.

It's the Ferrari 312 T4 with which Jody Scheckter won the World Championship in 1979. Scheckter won three races, the Grands Prix of Belgium, Monaco and Italy, and his team mate Gilles Villeneuve won the South African, United States and United States West races, finishing in second place in the Drivers' Championship. Ferrari, naturally, won the Constructors' Championship. Next to the Ferrari is a 1980 Alfa Romeo 179 and next to that a 1981 Lotus 88B.

AMOC Intermarque Championship

I took these photographs at Britten's chicane on the first lap of the 45 minute long AMOC Intermarque Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017.

29 1994 Porsche 968 CS (James Guess & James Hilliard)

12 1979 Porsche 911 SC (Tim Bates)

17 1993 BMW E36 (Gavin Dunn)

12 1979 Porsche 911 SC (Tim Bates)

17 1993 BMW E36 (Gavin Dunn)

4   1993 Porsche 968 (Peter Mangion)

34 1959 Aston Martin DB4 Lightweight (Martin Melling & Jason Minshaw)

44   1987 Porsche 944 Turbo (Bob Searles & Tony Jardine)

34   1959 Aston Martin DB4 Lightweight (Martin Melling & Jason Minshaw)

44   1987 Porsche 944 Turbo (Bob Searles & Tony Jardine)

144 1994 Porsche 968 CS (Martyn Buckley & Donald Lamb)

68   1992 Porsche 968 CS (Andrew Peck)

144 1994 Porsche 968 CS (Martyn Buckley & Donald Lamb)

68   1992 Porsche 968 CS (Andrew Peck)

96   1972 Aston Martin AMV8 (Simon Watts & Roberto Giordanelli)

48   1979 Triumph TR7 V8 (David Falkingham)

96   1972 Aston Martin AMV8 (Simon Watts & Roberto Giordanelli)

48   1979 Triumph TR7 V8 (David Falkingham)

30 1995 Porsche 968 CS (David Norton & Matthew Dietz)

1935 Maserati 4CS

This car took part in the Redgate Mug Race for Standard & Modified Pre-War Sports-Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's Adam Painter's 1935 Maserati 4CS, chassis #1126, originally with a supercharged 4-cylinder inline 1,088cc engine that was replaced with a 1,496cc engine in 1938. The car was originally owned by Ettore Bianco who finished in 7th, and then 6th in the 1935 and 1936 Mille Miglia races, winning his class on both occasions. It was involved in a fatal accident with the next owner, then acquired and rebuilt in 1937 by Luigi Villoresi and Count Giovanni Lurani's Scuderia Ambrosiana, and in 1939 found a new owner in Singapore. Adam Painter's father, Ken Painter, bought the car in 1969, and it's been with the family ever since.

1951 Leyland Olympic HR40

This is one of the vehicles taking part in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally at Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1993.

It's a 1951 Leyland Olympic HR40, one of ten that were bought for the Isle of Man Road Services fleet in 1950/51 and has a Weymann B40F body. It was withdrawn from service in 1973 with the new owners intending to convert it into a motor home, but this never happened and it was stored until 1984 when it was bought by the Merseyside Transport Trust and moved to the UK mainland. As with so many of the vehicles that I've photographed at these Rallies there's no note about it in the programme of the event, but I've found that it was acquired by the Jurby Transport Museum in 2009 and shipped back to the Isle of Man.

1964 Lotus 30

This car competed in the World Sport Car Masters race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1964 Lotus 30 of Matthew Watts, and according to the programme of the event has a 5300cc engine. The Lotus 30 had a backbone chassis similar to that of the Lotus Elan instead of the space frame chassis of Colin Chapman's last sports racing car, the Lotus 19, and was intended to compete in Can AM racing. Lotus engineer and designer Len Terry refused to have anything to do with the car because he considered that the backbone chassis would not give sufficient torsional stiffness, and except for some early encouraging results at the hands of Jim Clark the car wasn't a success. The Lotus 30 was originally built with a Ford 289 cu in (4,727cc) engine.

NG Road Racing at Oulton Park

I took these photographs at Lodge Corner during the A&R Racing Formula 400, Steve Lynham F125 & Desmo Due race at the NG Road Racing meeting at Oulton Park in April 2017.

Aaron Ridewood on a Kawasaki ZXR400 in the F400 Class

Andy Blomfield on a Ducati Monster 620 in the Desmo Due Class A 620

Matthew Lawson on a Ducati 620 SS in the Desmo Due Class A 620

Joe Holdsworth on a Kawasaki Ninja 300 in the F400 Class

Mark Hamilton on a Ducati 620 SS in the Desmo Due Class A 620