Gordon Ford of Stockport - Model T Party 1987 (Part 2)

Four more pictures from the Gordon Ford Model T car run on 10 May 1987.

Shown in the programme as a 1925 Commercial

A 1915 Californian Speedster

A 1923 Standard Van

A 1919 1 ton Van

Friday's Ferrari

The Tour de France for automobiles began in 1899 and evolved into a contest featuring rallying on public roads, circuit races and hill climbs. It was won in 1956 by Alfonso de Portago in a Ferrari 250 Berlinetta designed and built by Pinin Farina. As a result the car became unofficially known as the 250 Tour de France, or TdF and 84 examples were built, mostly by Carrozzeria Scaglietti, and Ferrari went on to win the event 9 times in all. As far as I can ascertain seven were won by the TdF and the last two by the 250GTO.

Here are photographs of four Ferrari 250 GT TdF models, in each case taken at Coys International Historic Festival meetings at Silverstone.

A 1959 TdF, serial number 1333GT, at the Coys meeting in July 1994

This is a 1958 car, serial number 0881GT, at the Coys meeting in July 1997.

A 1956 car, serial number 0585GT, again at the 1997 Coys meeting.

This is a 1958 TdF, serial number 0909GT, seen at the 1999 Coys meeting.

Gordon Ford of Stockport - Model T Party 1987 (part 1)

In 1987 Gordon Ford of Stockport arranged a car run to, I think, Buxton for Model T Fords and the run took place on 10 May. I took several photographs at the start of the run and here are the first few.

Not a Model T but a 1904 Model C - presumably allowed to run because it preceded the Model T

1910 Model T Runabout

1911 Model T Tourer

1911 Model T Tourer (no. 6)

1912 Model T Rumbleseat Roadster (no. 8)

1911 Model T Tourer (no. 7)

1912 Model T Tourer (no. 9)

Friday's Ferrari

This is a black and white photograph of a Ferrari at the 1962 British Grand Prix meeting at Aintree, although I don't remember taking it. It looks as if it was taken behind the grandstands at the start/finish line when I was on my way into or out of the circuit and I think it's a 212 Inter.
(Note 31 May 2014: I've since been investigating further and I now think it's a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport, serial number 0152EL)

The next two photographs were taken during practice at the same meeting  and are of the Ferrari 156 Dino driven by Phil Hill. The paddock was in the centre of the circuit between the start/finish straight and Melling Road and pedestrian access from the main stand was via a tunnel under the racetrack then a pathway of duckboards across the Grand National racecourse. The cars were taken to and from the circuit on a roadway of duckboards and the first photograph below shows a mechanic driving the car back to the paddock from a practice session.

This car's serial number is 0007 62

Lagonda DP115

At the 1994 Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone there were two of the Lagonda DP115 cars which were built in 1954 and entered for the Le Mans 24 hour race of that year. The car had a 4.5 litre V12 engine in a modified Aston Martin DB3S chassis and with a similar body to the DB3S. Only one car started the Le Mans race but retired after about 2 hours when it spun off the track when in 4th place and was damaged too much to allow it to continue. The cars were used in the 1956 film 'Checkpoint' starring Anthony Steel, Stanley Baker and James Robertson Justice.

Friday's Ferrari

Today's Ferrari is one spotted at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in 1970. I can't find the programme now, but as I recall it didn't identify what type of Ferrari this was supposed to be. It looks very much like the final version of the Lancia-Ferrari raced in 1957, particularly from the side and rear, except for the exhaust pipes. The 1957 car had a V8 engine with 4 exhausts coming along each side of the car whereas the one in these photographs has exhausts suggesting a 4-cylinder engine. The 1957 cars were apparently dismantled by the factory when they were no longer needed and the surviving engines and transaxles have been used in recent years to reconstruct four, I think, of the original 1955 Lancia D50 and 1956 Lancia-Ferrari cars.

Note (Nov 2014); I've now found that this is a 'special' constructed on chassis 0712 by Ferrari for New Zealander Pat Hoare and you can read about it here.

McCormick CX95 and other tractors

The first photograph below is one I took in September last year of a farmer on the western slopes of Werneth Low going about his work in a McCormick CX95 tractor (I only know it's a McCormick because I enlarged the photograph and read the name on the side of the tractor).

If he had also owned one of the two tractors shown below he could have put a sticker on the McCormick saying "My other tractor is a Porsche". Porsche apparently started making tractors in 1934 and continued until the early 1960s.

This is a Porsche tractor which I came across amongst the vehicles of the Porsche Owners Club at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

This Porsche tractor was on display with the Porsche Owners Club vehicles at the Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 2001. Apparently, as it tells you here, it was specially designed to work on coffee plantations and some 300 or so were exported to Brazil. The aerodynamic smooth lines were designed to avoid damage to the coffee plants.

Airbus A380

Hyde is about 9 miles North-East of Manchester Airport and is directly under the most frequently used flight path for landing aircraft. Being in the foothills of the Pennines it's a lot higher than the airport and the aircraft are usually relatively low when they pass over the town. They frequently pass right over my house and on a nice sunny day in summer (perhaps I should say THE nice sunny day in summer!) I sometimes sit in the back garden taking photos of the passing planes. The photos below are of the Emirates Airbus A380 which flies in and out of Manchester every day on its way to and from Dubai. They're taken using a 90-300mm zoom lens.

Friday's Ferrari

Seen at the Coys International Historic Festival in 1997, this is the 1960 Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta, serial number 2119GT, in which Stirling Moss won the 1960 Goodwood Tourist Trophy race.

Stirling Moss was a regular competitor at the Coys Historic Festival meetings at Silverstone and here he is at the 1994 event.

Napier-Railton

At the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2011 there was a demonstration run by the Napier-Railton car from Brooklands Museum which was once driven by John Cobb in several successful World speed record attempts and in track races at Brooklands where it held the lap record at a speed of 143.44 mph when the track eventually closed in 1939. You can read about the car here.

This is the car in the paddock at Donington Park. It has a Napier Lion aero engine of 12 cylinders in 3 banks of 4 in a broad arrow configuration - in other words a V8 with another 4 cylinders sitting upright in the middle of the V. Hence the 2 exhaust systems you can see above with another exhaust on the other side of the car.

When taking photographs of the track action at Donington Park I usually go round to McLean's Corner but on this occasion for the demonstration run I went to Coppice Corner.

The entry to Coppice Corner is up a slight rise

In the middle of the corner

Preparing to exit the corner onto Starkey's Straight and past the Exhibition Centre.