Friday's Ferrari

Today's car is a 1956 Ferrari 500TRC, serial number 0682MDTR, an improved version of the 500TR which was introduced in 1954 as a replacement for the 500 Mondial and was the first Ferrari to carry the 'Testa Rossa' name. This photo was taken at the 2005 See Red meeting at Donington Park.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a Ferrari 312T5 as driven by Gilles Villeneuve in the 1980 season. Seen leaving the pits for a demonstration run at Donington Park at the See Red meeting in 1985.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a Ferrari Enzo pictured at Donington Park at the 'See Red' meeting in September 2005 making its way onto the track with other Ferraris for a parade lap.

The Enzo was introduced in 2002 and is named after the company's founder, Enzo Ferrari.

Gordon Ford of Stockport - Model T Party (Part 4)

Some more photos from the Model T car run of 10 May 1987.

1920 Tourer and 1920 1 ton Truck

1913 Speedster

1922 Van

1923 Standard Van

A Car linked to a Tragic Story

This is an anonymous little car photographed at the 1998 Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998. It was built in 1954 using a twin cam version of a 1500cc Singer engine developed by the HRG Engineering Company and with chassis and bodywork designed by a former Aston Martin engineer. The owner and driver of the car successfully competed against cars such as the Lotus MkVI and MkVIII cars designed by Colin Chapman and he had been picked to be part of the Bristol team at the Le Mans 24 hour race in June 1955.

The car is the Emperor HRG and the owner and driver was David Blakely. On 10 April 1955 outside The Magdala public house in Hampstead, London he was shot dead by his ill-used lover, Ruth Ellis, who subsequently became the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom.

Friday's Ferrari

This is another of the cars photographed at the 1997 Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1997 which included a special tribute to Ferrari.

The car is a Ferrari 335S, serial number 0700, and was one of the cars used by Ferrari in the 1957 World Sports Car Championship series. It was whilst driving one of these cars that Alfonso de Portago suffered the fatal accident which effectively ended the Mille Miglia.

Manchester United

This is a photograph of the original Munich Memorial at Old Trafford which I took in about 1962.

The wording on the memorial was always difficult to read, especially in bright sunlight as it was in gold letters on a green field and this photograph was a colour slide which has deteriorated somewhat over the years. The memorial is still there although it cannot now be seen as it was over the main entrance to the stadium which is on the south side alongside the railway line. When the stadium was extended on that side, which resulted in the upper part of the stand being built out over the access road thus creating a tunnel, it was decided that it wasn't possible to remove and re-site the memorial so it disappeared from sight when the alterations were made. 

Gordon Ford of Stockport - Model T Party 1987 (Part 3)

Another four photographs from the Gordon Ford Model T car run of 10 May 1987.

1924 Laundaulette

1922 7cwt Van

1922 1 ton Truck and 1923 Tourer

1927 Tudor Coupe

(There was also a Ford Fordor - I understand that they were so-called because the Tudor had two doors and the Fordor had four doors)

Woodford Aerodrome

Woodford Aerodrome, famous for its association with the Avro Lancaster, Avro Vulcan, Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and other aircraft, closed as an active airfield in August 2011 and was sold for redevelopment in December of that year. I recently came across some photographs I took at the RAFA Woodford airshow in 1995 and five of the photographs are shown below. The three aircraft took part in a display entitled 'Korean War Dogfight' and are a North American P-51 Mustang, a MiG 15 and a North American F-86 Sabre.

North American P-51 Mustang

North American P-51 Mustang

MiG 15 and North American F-86 Sabre

MiG 15

North American F-86 Sabre

Friday's Ferrari

The first British Grand Prix I attended was at Aintree in 1955. The Ferrari entry that day consisted of three of the 625 models driven by Mike Hawthorn, Eugenio Castelloti and Maurice Trintignant. The only one to finish was Hawthorn's car, taken over later in the race by Castelloti, in sixth place and three laps behind the winning Mercedes Benz of Stirling Moss. The 625 was created in 1954 by modifying the chassis of the 500 model, which had been used in 1952 and 1953 when races were run under Formula Two regulations, and fitting a 2.5 litre engine. Ferrari had raced the 553 'Squalo' and the 555 'Supersqualo' in 1954 and 1955, but by the time of the 1955 British Grand Prix had reverted to the older 625. At the end of that season with the demise of the Lancia Grand Prix team their D50 cars were handed over to Ferrari who raced the cars with some modifications over the next two seasons before introducing the 246 with which Mike Hawthorn won the world championship in 1958. The photographs below show a Ferrari 625 which took part in the 'See Red' meetings at Donington Park in 2004 and 2007.

Leaving the pits for a practice session in the 2004 event

In the paddock at the 2007 event