1906 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

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

It’s the original Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and this is the note about the car in the programme of the event:

 

22.     Rolls-Royce Limited, London, W.1.

            (Driver – Mr D.E.A.Miller-Williams, Rolls-Royce Limited).

            1906 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 7036 c.c.

This is the original Silver Ghost built at the first Rolls-Royce works in Cooke Street, Manchester. The distinguishing name comes from the fact that Mr. Claude Johnson, the first managing director of the Company, was determined to demonstrate the ability of a new 40/50 h.p. chassis and fitted a special aluminium painted body with all the external metal work silver plated. In May 1907 the car was driven from London to Edinburgh directly in its third gear, and shortly afterwards achieved a world record run of 14,371 miles without an involuntary stop. Four drivers worked in relays for fifteen weeks under continuous R.A.C. supervision to achieve this record. To date this magnificent machine has covered well over half-a-million miles.

 

N.B. America’s recent Artemis mission recently travelled about the same distance going to the Moon and back.

1956 MG Magnette ZB

This is a photograph that I took in one of the car parks at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in May 2019.

It’s a 1956 MG Magnette ZB and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,489cc engine. 18,524 of these cars were built between 1956 and 1958.

1955 Maserati 250F

This car was owned by Pete Waterman and was driven by Willie Green in the HGPCA Pre’65 Grand Prix Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's indistinguishable from a 1950s Maserati 250F, but it's the first of 12 replicas built by Cameron Millar and has the chassis number CM1. Cameron Millar acquired a genuine Maserati 250F in 1964 (originally 2501, later renumbered 2523) which he kept and raced for 8 years. In this time he purchased all the remaining cars and spare parts belonging to the Scuderia Centro Sud who had competed with the 250F in the 1950s, and also the chassis jigs from the Maserati factory. He then set about creating this series of replicas, using as far as possible genuine period parts, which are so well crafted that the FIA has allowed them to race alongside the genuine Maserati 250F and its contemporaries in competitive historic racing events.

Drag Racing 1965

In 1964 and 1965 the US National Hot Rod Association in conjunction with the British Drag Racing Association organised an exhibition tour of Britain which in 1965 included a drag race meeting on the runway of RAF Woodvale near Southport. This is a photograph that I took that day of one of the US drivers preparing for a run.

I don't recall having a programme at the event, but this is apparently Gary Casady in his Ansen Forgings Chevy powered 400 Junior Fueler.

1983 Austin Ambassador

I took these photographs at a classic car show in Hyde, Cheshire in October 2025.

It's a 1983 Auston Ambassador and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,994cc engine.

The note in the windscreen of the car reads as follows:

Austin Ambassador

 

The Ambassador is what ADO71,

the Austin Princess became in its final form.

The conversion to Ambassador was codenamed LM19 and cost just £19M.

Ambassador was a stop-gap model before LC10,

the Montego and Maestro were launched.

 

This was a mainstream model but only 44,000 examples were made,

between 1982 and 1984 and now to many peoples’ surprise, only 74 survive including

only 13 in Vanden Plas trim and only 17 in total are known to be on the road!

 

The advanced features of Harris Mann’s design include:-

crumple zones with a rigid passenger cell,

fold-away steering wheel to protect ribs in an accident,

front wheel drive for accuracy in all road conditions,

Hydragas suspension, linked front to rear giving legendary comfort,

a huge boot, masses of legroom, especially in the back, and wedge styling.

Over the Princess, the ambassador has bigger, improved Hydragas suspension units,

wider wheels, the dashboard is all new, there is an air dam at the front

to further reduce drag and it is a hatchback.

 

The decision not to build the Princess in the first place as a hatchback was because

BL wanted a saloon car, so as not to compete with its own Rover SD1.

 

Despite being ‘badged’ an Austin, Ambassadors were at Cowley, Oxford,

the former Morris factory where BMW Minis are built today.

 

Here is a very rare British car to be proud of.

 

A455 VUK Ambassador Vanden Plas

1999 Renault Laguna

I took this photograph at Druids Corner during qualifying for the HSCC/TCRE Super Touring Car Challenge race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2018.

It’s Mark Jones in his ex-Jason Plato 1999 Renault Laguna which has a 4-cylinder inline 1,988cc engine.

Friday's Ferrari

The Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017 celebrated Ferrari’s 70^th Anniversary, and this is one of the cars that marked the occasion.

It’s a 2016 Ferrari 488 Challenge based on the 488 GTB and has a 3,902cc V8 engine.