Sunbeam Mk III

This is one of a variety of cars that were in the Pallot Museum in Jersey that we visited in May 2013.

It's a Sunbeam Mk III, a car that was produced between 1954 and 1957 and was the final version of a series of cars that started with the Sunbeam Talbot 90 of 1948, the 'Talbot' being dropped for this model. Following on from the Sunbeam Talbot 90 Mk II and Mk IIA, the MkIII can be identified by the enlarged air intakes on each side of the radiator grille and the three small portholes just below the bonnet and near to the windscreen on each side of the car, though these are largely obscured by the wing mirror on this photograph. The Sunbeam Mk III was powered by a 4-cylinder inline 2,267cc engine, and it was good enough for one of the cars to win the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally in the hands of Per Malling and Gunnar Fadum.

1970s Formula 3 Racing

The Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004 included the HSCC Classic Formula 3 Series race for Formula 3 cars built and raced between 1 January 1971 and 31 Decenber 1980. The engines the cars were allowed to use in this Series were the 1.6 litre Lotus Twin Cam or the 2 litre Toyota units.

I took this photograph during the race at Luffield corner, and leading here is Richard Trott in his 1978 2 litre Ralt RT1 followed by Ian Smith in a 1979 2 litre Argo JM6 and Steve Maxted in another Argo JM6, this one a 1980 model. Behind them and still to round Priory corner is Tom Thornton in a 1974 2 litre March 743.

1953 Cooper Bristol MkII

This car competed in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers' Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's Roddy MacPherson's 1953 Cooper Bristol MkII which has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. The Cooper Car Company had been started in 1946 by father and son Charles & John Cooper when the new Formula 3 class of racing for 500cc cars was introduced as a relatively simple and cheap way to go motor racing and they built a car powered by a 500cc motor cycle engine, usually a Norton or a JAP. Cooper later entered 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 designed 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.

Here's Roddy MacPherson rounding Lodge Corner during the race.

1937 Auto Union C-Type

This is a photograph I took at Donington Park in May 2001 at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting.

It's a 1937 Auto Union C-Type which Audi had brought to the meeting together with a 1938 Auto Union D-Type and various other vehicles which were displayed in the paddock, and some of which took part in demonstration runs round the circuit. The Auto Union C-Type is pictured here on the straight between the Old Hairpin and Starkey's Bridge. 1937 was the last year of the 750kg weight formula where cars were restricted to a maximum weight of 750kg, but there was no limit to the size of the engine. The Auto Union C-Type had a V16 engine of 6,006cc situated behind the driver, but even this was not enough to challenge the supremacy of the 5,663cc straight-8 Mercedes Benz W125 with Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch, Hermann Lang and Christian Kautz finishing in the top four positions at the end of the five race European Championship series. Rudolf Hasse though did win the first race of the season, the Belgian Grand Prix, for Auto Union.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's Carlos Monteverde's 1952 Ferrari 375 Indianapolis, one of four cars specially prepared with a 4,382cc V12 engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi for the 1952 Indianapolis 500 race. One of the cars was to be driven in the race by Alberto Ascari, the others being sold to American drivers. Ascari's car was the only one to qualify for the race, in 19th position on the grid and in the race got as high as 8th position at one point but the spokes on one of the rear wheels gave way on lap 40 putting him out of the race. Carlos Monteverde's car is chassis #2 which was sold to Gerry Grant, becoming the Grant Piston Ring Special, to be driven by Johnny Parsons, but he had a falling out with Ferrari and switched to a Kurtis Offenhauser for the race where he finished in tenth place. Danny Oakes took over the Grant Piston Ring Special but failed to qualify. Afterwards the car was sold to a partnership of four people, eventually ended up with one of them, Ernie Beutller, from whom Carlos Monteverde acquired it in 1997. I understand that the car is now with the Dutch National Motor Museum at The Hague.

1933 Barnato Hassan Bentley

This car is the 1933 Barnato Hassan Bentley Special and was driven by Keith Schellenberg in the Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 1975.

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.

Equipe GTS Series Race

 I took this photograph at McLean's Corner during the Equipe GTS Series race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

In the lead is Stephen Bolderson in his 1964 MGB with the 1963 TVR Grantura of Norrie Nicoll close behind and David Russell-Wilks' 1965 MGB bringing up the rear.