Friday's Ferrari

One of the cars which took part in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998, this is the 1970 Ferrari 512 S of Brandon Wang which was driven in that race by Gary Pearson.

The car is serial number 1016

Gary Pearson leaving the pit lane on a practice run in the car

Guernsey May 2014

Over to Guernsey again last week to see grandson Edward and join in the Liberation Day celebrations - the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Guernsey from Hitler's Nazis on 9th May 1945.

It's only 2 months since we were last there but Edward's seems to have changed such a lot in that time. This is his multi-purpose gesture apparently signifying "What do I do now?", "I've finished doing that", "Look what I did" or "I didn't do that" as appropriate.

Standing at the top of his slide in the garden

Enjoying a lollipop at Moulin Huet Bay

Albert Pier in St Peter Port was pretty crowded on Liberation Day

Watching the vehicle cavalcade along the Esplanade

The cavalcade of vehicles of the Guernsey Old Car Club and the Guernsey Military Vehicles Group was led by the RAF Lossiemouth Pipes & Drums band.

The vehicles in the parade included this Jaguar XK120 from the early 1950s....

....this 1934 Austin Seven 2-seat Tourer....

....and this WW2 Chevrolet C15 Truck.

We came home on the Sunday evening flight to Manchester and the clear and sunny weather allowed me to take this photograph of the west coast of Guernsey shortly after take-off.

Vazon Bay at the bottom and above that Cobo Bay and Grandes Rocques

Pallot Museum, Jersey - two more Tractors

I've shown previously several of the tractors in the Pallot Museum in Jersey (just type 'Pallot Museum' in the search box on the right to see them) and here are two more, both Allis Chalmers models.

A 1955 Allis Chalmers model D272

A 1938 Allis Chalmers model 'B'

Bruce McLaren

1962 was the last of five occasions on which the British Grand Prix was held at Aintree and I was fortunate enough to see each of those races. On the last two occasions I had left school and was therefore able to take a day off work on the Friday of the race and go to Aintree to watch the practice sessions. The photograph below was taken at the Friday practice for the 1962 event and shows Bruce McLaren in the paddock in his Cooper-Climax T60 on his way to the pits at the start of a practice session.

Bruce McLaren qualified in fourth position on the grid and finished third in the race behind the winner Jim Clark in a Lotus-Climax 25 and John Surtees in a Lola-Climax Mk4.

Friday's Ferrari

Seen in the pit garage at Donington Park at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting orgainised by the VSCC in June 2003, this is the 1963 Ferrari 330 GTO (or 330 LM) of Carlo Vögele. When the Automobile Club de l'Ouest added a class to the Le Mans 24 Hour Race for prototype cars with a displacement limit of 4 litres Ferrari produced three cars which were effectively 250 GTOs with the usual 3 litre engine replaced by the 4 litre SuperAmerica unit. This particular car is serial number 4561SA.

Aston Martin DB2 Vantage Drophead Coupe

This is a car photographed in the Aston Martin Owners Club display area at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993. It's a 1952 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage Drophead Coupe with coachwork by Carrosserie Graber and you can read about the car on this Bonhams website.

Overland Tourer

This is a photograph of a 1915 Overland Tourer which took part in the annual Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club and run on 2nd June 1991. The programme of the event gives this information about the car:

'1915 Overland Tourer

Reg: AD 4296  4 cylinder 15/20 hp

(Robert S. Kemp, Aughton)

This Overland was a one-family car for

more than 40 years from new. It is still in

totally original condition, and has only

covered minimal mileage in its lifetime.'

According to the Wilkipedia website about the Overland Automobile Company Overland Motors was purchased in 1908 by John North Willys and the company was renamed Willys-Overland in 1912. This 1915 car should therefore be a Willys-Overland. Willys-Overland is best known, of course, for the design and production of the military Jeep during the Second World War.

This particular car was sold at auction in April 2011 by H&H Classic Car Auctioneers.