1963 Aston Martin DP214

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during the Coys of Kensington GT Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's Simon Draper's 1963 Aston Martin DP214 in which he shared the driving in the race with David Clark. This was one of two Project 214 cars built (the other being completely destroyed in an accident at the Nürburgring in 1964) and was based on DB4GT chassis 0194/R with the 3,670cc straight-6 engine bored out to 3,750cc.The car ran in the Le Mans 24 Hour race twice, retiring after 11 hours with a broken piston when in third place in 1963 driven by Bill Kimberley and Jo Schlesser, and in 1964 it was driven by Mike Salmon and Peter Sutcliffe but was disqualified after 18 hours for topping up with oil before the permitted time. It was in eleventh place at the time. Behind the Aston are the 1965 MGB of David Heynes/Mike Wilds and the 1960 Austin Healey 3000 of Ted and Mark Williams.

Elva Courier and Austin Healey 3000

I took these photographs at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

These cars are waiting to join the circuit to take part in qualifying session for the Equipe Pre '63 race. Number 70 is the 1959 Elva Courier of Paul Andrew and 152 is the 1965 Austin Healey 3000 of Martyn Caulfield.

Here's Paul Andrew in the Elva at Druids Corner during that qualifying session...

....and here's Martyn Caulfield in his Austin Healey.

1959 Austin Healey 3000 MkI

This car competed in the Innes Ireland Cup race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2015.

It's the 1959 Austin Healey 3000 MkI of Jack Chatham and has a 6-cylinder inline 2,912cc BMC C-Series engine.

The badge on the nose of the car says 'Austin Healey Sebring', and while the Austin Healey 3000 did compete in the Sebring 12 Hour race the Austin Healey name there is more associated with the Austin Healey Sebring Sprite, starting with a first, second and third in class at the 1959 race.

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.

Britten's Chicane, Oulton Park

Three photographs here and a short video clip taken at Britten's chicane during the Equipe Pre '63 race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

This is the 1965 Austin Healey 3000 of Martyn Corfield leading the 1959 Elva Courier of Paul Andrew. In the background Adam Key in his 1961 Austin Healey Sprite has spun after Island Corner and is still facing the wrong way.

Paul Kennerley in his 1959 Jaguar XK150 is leading David Reed in his 1952 Aston Martin DB2

James Haxton in his 1960 Austin Healey 3000 leading the 1954 Austin Healey 100/4 of Jim Campbell, the 1962 Morgan Plus 4 of Mark Hoble and the 1962 Lotus Elite of John Pearson.

The field passing through Britten's chicane on the first lap of the race. It's a bit shaky and filmed on my little Canon IXUS camera.

Austin Healey

This photograph was taken at the HSCC's Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992 and shows three Austin Healeys that took part in the HSCC Classic Sports Car Championship race at that event.

The car on the left is the 1961 Austin Healey 3000 of David Summerson, a car that was produced between 1959 and 1967 with a straight-six 2,912cc engine, although the programme says this car had a capacity of 2,996cc. The other two cars are both examples of the Austin Healey 100/6, the predecessor of the 3000 and produced from 1956 to 1959. It also had a straight-six engine with a capacity of 2,639cc. The middle car is the 1958 car of Rob Wilson, a car that the programme says has an engine of 2,962cc, and the car on the right is Eddie Falkous' 1957 model which has a 2,996cc engine according to the programme.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at the HGPCA's Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's David Cottingham's 2-litre 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC, serial number 0682MDTR, which I have featured several times previously. The car immediately behind it is Christopher Keen's 1954 Kurtis 500, and the car on the trailer in the background is the Austin Healey 3000 MkI that Chris Clarkson and Ted Williams shared in the Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance Race.

Austin Healey 3000

On 15 April 2015 I showed a photograph of a 1959 Austin Healey 3000 taken at Oulton Park at a Jaguar Drivers' Club meeting in April 1987. Here's another photograph of the same car taken just three weeks later, again at Oulton Park.

It's at the HSCC Spring Historic Race Meeting in May 1987 and it was again driven by Denis Welch, seen here at Lodge Corner in the HSCC Pre '60 Historic Sports Car Championship race.

Austin Healey 3000

This car took part in the AMOC Thoroughbred Sportscar Championship Race at the Cheshire Cats' Trophy Meeting organised by the Jaguar Drivers' Club at Oulton Park in April 1987.

It's a 1959 Austin Healey 3000, entered by Denis Welch Swish Healey Racing Team and driven in the race by Denis Welch. You can read about the history of this particular car here.

London Motor Show 1962

Here's a photograph which I took at the London Motor Show in 1962. I didn't use a flash on the camera and as the Earls Court exhibition centre wasn't very well lit the quality of most of the photographs I took that day isn't brilliant.

This car is a design by Pio Manzu based on an Austin Healey 3000, and this is what the website autodesign.socialblog.us has to say about the car:

More than 40 years ago a young Italian designer, Pio Manzù, outlined the needs and guidelines for an harmonius development of individual mobility with a system of private and public transport. Four decades later his vision has not been implemented yet. It was not his fault. Arch. Enrico Leonardo Fagone, has presented his lecture on Pio Manzù and has agreed to share it with us. I am sure you will not miss a single line of his presentation. Giancarlo Perini.

PIO MANZU’ PIONEER OF CAR AND TRANSPORTATION DESIGN.

In the world of design, and car design in particular, many still remember the contribution of Pio Manzù, a young designer with an international trai­ning who died in a car accident in May 1969.

The son of the famous sculptor Giacomo Manzù,  Pio Manzoni (Manzù) was born in 1939 in Bergamo and after high school in Italy, he joined the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm.

The school, founded by Max Bill, gave a new relevance to the teachings and methods of the Bauhaus. Before graduation, together with classmates Michael Conrad and Henner Werner, the young Manzù won a prestigious international competition held by the Année Automobile. The prize consisted in the execution of their own design (based on the bones of the Austin Healey 3000 mechanicals) to be built by Pininfarina in 1962. The prototype was first exhibited that year at the London Motor Show.

You can see the complete article about Pio Manzu here.