1960 AEC Regent V

This was one of the buses that took part in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1990.

It's not listed in the programme of the event but it's a 1960 AEC Regent V provided new to Sheffield Corporation, and has an Alexander H37/32R body. It was purchased for preservation in 1976.

Maserati 450S

This is a photograph I took at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's not mentioned in the programme of the event and as far as I can recall there was nothing on display saying anything about the car, but it appears to be a replica of a Maserati 450S. It's similar to the 300S but has a bulge on the hood to accommodate the V8 engine. The DVLA record unfortunately no longer recognises the registration number VNT450. Later in the day I took a photograph of what I assumed was the same car as it drove past me in the paddock:

It's a different car though, as it doesn't have a registration number on the nose of the car and has louvres in the bodywork behind the front wheel.

But there was a genuine Maserati 450S at the meeting which competed in the 1950s Sports Car race - that of Thomas Bscher which I featured on 28 July 2015.

1935 MG Q-type & 1933 MG J4

This is a photograph I took in the paddock of two cars that competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

Number 51 is Colvin Gunn's 1935 MG Q-type special of Colvin Gunn which has a 939cc supercharged engine and number 52 is the 1933 MG J4 of Colin Tieche which has a 746cc supercharged engine.

1914 Crossley Staff Car

This is a photograph that I took on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1985.

I no longer have the programme of the event, but it's a 1914 Crossley Staff Car and the 1990 programme of the run gave this information about it:

 

'1914 Crossley

Reg: NA 557  4 cylinder  20 hp

(G.D.Moores, Denton, Manchester)

This Royal Flying Corps staff car is one of only

two known to exist in Britain. Originally built in

Manchester, it spent much of its life in India,

and returned to the UK in 1969. It has twin-tyred

rear wheels and has been a class winner many

times on this Run.'

1978 Fittipaldi F5A

This was one of the competitors in the Grand Prix Masters F1 Cars 1966-1985 race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the1978 Fittipaldi F5A of Richard Barber, sometimes called the Copersucar after its first major sponsor, and has a 2,993cc V8 Cosworth DFV engine. Fittipaldi Automotive was formed in 1974 by Brazilian Wilson Fittipaldi and his younger brother Emerson, winner of the 1972 World Drivers' Championship. The F5A is a modification of the 1977 F5 and is the car that was driven by Emerson Fittipaldi in 1978, sharing ninth place in the World Drivers’ Championship with Gilles Villeneuve, his best result being second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Fittipaldi team finished in seventh place in the World Constructors’ Championship.

Friday's Ferrari

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

It's the 2000 Ferrari 360 driven by Matthew Wilton and John Cowen in the 50 minute long race and has the Tipo F131 3,586cc V8 engine. Although it doesn't say so in the programme the car is probably the Challenge version of the Ferrari 360.

1962 BRM P578

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989 showing the the car that brought BRM its only World Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

It's the 1962 BRM P578 which Graham Hill drove in the 1962 and 1963 seasons, although the 'stack-pipe' exhaust system was quickly revised as the pipes had a tendency to drop off quite frequently. The Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection says this about the car:

'The ‘Stack-Pipe’

BRM’s Championship winner

Sir Alfred Owen made it clear to BRM’s personnel that 1962 was to be their make-or-break season. They had won their first, and so far only, Grand Prix victory at Zandvoort in 1959, and now the expensive new 1½ litre V8 engine had to prove itself successful. It did, and Graham Hill won his first Grand Prix at Zandvoort, went on to win again in the German, Italian and South African rounds, and ended the season as World Champion Driver. British Racing Motors won the World Constructors’ Championship; honour was satisfied, and the concern survived. BRM’s prototype P56 V8-engined car appeared in practice for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where it impressed as one of the sleekest and smallest Formula 1 cars of its time. The engine was a 90-degree twin-overhead camshaft V8 with Lucas fuel injection, designed by Chief Engineer Tony Rudd, and initially it offered about 188bhp at 10,500rpm. The prototype P56 car introduced a neat and light multi-tubular spaceframe chassis with strikingly handsome bodywork, and the type began the 1962 season with individual megaphone exhausts swept-up from each cylinder bank. These won it the name of the ‘Stack-Pipe BRM’, and Hill won the first heat of the Brussels GP with it, then went on to win at Goodwood and then in an epic near dead-heat with Jim Clark’s Lotus-Climax at Silverstone. The stack-pipe exhausts regularly came adrift, and were replaced by a complex low-level system at Spa. Hill fought a season-long battle with Clark, and his American team-mate Richie Ginther drove ably to take third place in Germany and second to Hill in BRM’s great day at Monza. BRM V8 engines sold well to private customers, and the P56s raced on through 1963 when Hill won the Monaco and United States GPs and Ginther excelled once more. The pair chased Clark home in the World Championship table. By that time, people had stopped laughing at BRM!'

The car was generally known as the P578 to differentiate the 8-cylinder car from the previous season's 4-cylinder P57, but because it had a P56 engine the car itself was known as such by BRM. Behind the P578 is the Donington Museum's 1954 BRM P30, V16 Mk2 No2, alternatively known as V16/05. After the demise of the 4½ litre/1½ litre supercharged Formula One at the end of the 1951 season the Mk1 and Mk2 BRM's were raced in Formula Libre events until 1955, after which the BRM team concentrated on the new Formula One 2½ litre BRM P25.