1933/36 Aston Martin Le Mans

This is a photograph that I took at the Knickerbrook chicane during a scratch race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It’s the 1933/36 Aston Martin Le Mans of Tony Armstrong which should have a 4-cylinder inline 1,493cc engine, but the programme of the event says that its capacity is 1,850cc and it is supercharged. There’s no other mention of the car in the programme but I’ve found several online references to it, though none of them give any information about the engine. The car following it appears to be the 1926 Bugatti Type 35B of Mike Preston.

1950 AEC Regent III

This is one of the vehicles that took part in the Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Rally at Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1990.

It's a 1950 AEC Regent III and the note about the vehicle in the programme of the event reads as follows;

AEC Regent 3RT, Weymann, 1950                                                                                LLU 613

London Transport RT

Enetered by B Simmons, Baguley, Manchester

Starting as a Greenline bus in 1950 this bus passed to London Country. London Transport purchased the bus back in 1972 and it was one of the last 13 RT's in service in 1979.

1960 Elva 200

This was one of the cars entered for the Coys of Kensington Formula Junior Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It’s the 1960 Elva 200 of Grant Stephen and has a 1,098cc BMC Cosworth engine.

1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash

 This is a photograph that I took at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

It's a 1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash, over 19,000 of which were built between 1901 and 1907, and it has a single cylinder 95 cu. in. (1,560cc) engine. There were several other cars of  early 20th century vintage parked nearby but no mention of them in the programme of the event. The programme does give a list of the Concours d'Elegance entrants which were gathered together just outside the paddock. A check of the DVLA record for AM256 says that vehicle details could not be found.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a photograph that I took  during the HGPCA Race for Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's Alexander Boswell's in his 1952/55 Ferrari 625, originally a Ferrari 500, chassis #0482, built as a 4-cylinder 2 litre Formula 2 car and used in World Championship races in 1952 and 1953 when they were run to Formula 2 regulations. The new Formula 1 regulations specifying a 2½ litre engine came into force in 1954 and this car was given a 2½ litre unit to convert it to a Ferrari 625. It later had a 4-cylinder 3-litre Ferrari 735 engine installed and was raced in Australia by Peter Whitehead.

1904 Renault VB

This is a photograph that I took on Quay Street in Manchester at the Lancashire  Automobile Club’s Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run on a very rainy day in June 1967.

It’s the AA’s 1904 Renault VB with Park Phaeton coachwork, and the programme of the event had this note about the car:

 

14.      Automobile Association, London.

             (Driver – Mr. W. G. Thompson).

             1904 Renault 4398c.c.

The AA are entering, for the first time, their 1904 Renault which they acquired just over a year ago. Its previous owner, Mr. Paul Waring, was a well-known collector of Veteran Cars and the car is being preserved in his memory and as a representative of the Motoring Age in which the AA was founded. The brass plaque on the car tells, in brief, the history :- The Paul Waring Renault. This 1904 Park Phaeton 20/0 h.p. Renault was owned by Mr. Paul Waring, who painstakingly restored it in every detail prior to his tragic death in 1964. In his memory it is being preserved for posterity, and the delight of the motoring public of every age, by the Automobile Association. The Renault, which has now been given the registration number AA1, is a magnificent vehicle, being both impressive and graceful. It seats seven comfortably, and is powered by a four-cylinder 4½ litre engine (100 x 140 mm.) rated at 24.8 h.p. It has a three-speed quadrant-change gearbox behind the cone clutch, and the final drive is by a central propellor shaft to a “live” back axle. Its maximum speed is about 50 m.p.h. and it does 20 miles to the gallon. Known as a “Park Phaeton” model the coachwork was specially built by Rothschild et Cie of Paris and won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in December 1904. It was originally bought by Elizabeth, Lady Cheylesmore, who used it as a town carriage. She was at one time Lady-in-Waiting to the late Queen Mary who is said to have ridden in the car on numerous occasions. On the occasion of the fiftieth Paris Motor Show, the Renault led the procession with General de Gaulle as a passenger down the Champs Elysées. It also featured prominently in the film, “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and has successfully completed the London to Brighton run on at least sixteen occasions.

 

Behind the Renault is a 1904 Siddeley, about which the programme says:

 

16.      Mr. G. A. Estler, Whiteleaf, Bucks,

             1904 Siddeley two-seater.

Car delivered to King & sons of Bournemouth in November 1904. Then the colour was Navy blue, lined yellow. Purchased by my uncle from R. G. J. Nash in 1934 and in use by the family ever since. Has competed in many Brighton Runs and finished thirteen times. The engine is horizontal and  the drive by a largr single chain. The car was manufactured by the Wolseley Company and is identical to a contemporary Wolseley apart from the bonnet and radiator. Three similar cars are known to the Veteran Car Car Club.

1950 Alfa Romeo 158

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre-61 Front Engine Grand Prix Cars race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's not shown in the entry list for that race, but it's Carlo Vögele's 1939 Alfa Romeo 158. At around that time I went to a meeting at Donington Park where this car appeared and a note in the programme of that meeting said this about the car:

'The 158 Alfetta, a voiturette, of Carlo Vögele with its Columbo designed straight-eight engine first appeared in 1938 at the Coppa Ciano where the three cars entered and came first, second and seventh. With only a single stage supercharger, the engine was said to develop 195bhp at 7500rpm. A Formula One Grand Prix car from 1948, in its final form in 1951 the engine had two-stage supercharging, developed something like 400bhp plus after the superchargers had taken some 135bhp, and did 1.6mpg, according to David Hodges. This car had independent suspension all round with trailing links at the front.'