Friday's Ferrari

There are actually four Ferraris seen in this photograph taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 2001. The nearest car is a 1954 Ferrari 750 Monza (0568M) and next to that is a yellow 250 Testa Rossa of 1957 (0738TR). Car number 37 is a 1955 Maserati 300S, beyond that is a red Ferrari 166MM Barchetta (0040M) from 1950 and then a yellow 1956 Ferrari 500TR (0682MDTR). The red coupe beyond that is, I think, an AC Cobra.

The 750 Monza, which was introduced in 1954, was a 3 litre version of the 2 litre Mondial and was named 'Monza' after winning its first race at that circuit in the hands of Mike Hawthorn and Umberto Maglioli. The bodywork for cars was originally designed by Pinin Farina, but it is the later cars with Scaglietti designed bodies which are perhaps better known. This particular car spent most of its life in Finland, hence the Finnish flag on the headrest.

Maserati 6CM

Another Maserati from the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986. This one is a Maserati 6CM which was at the time owned and driven by Peter Hannen. The 6CM was a 1.5 litre car produced from 1936 to 1940 and this particular car is a 1937 model.

The car in the paddock before its race

Rounding Lodge Corner

Bluebird at Belle Vue, Manchester

From 23 August to 11 September 1965 Donald Campbell's land-speed record and water-speed record breaking Bluebird vehicles, together with his father Sir Malcolm Campbell's land-speed record breaking Sunbeam of 1924 and 1925, were on display at Belle Vue, Manchester. I still have the 'souvenir programme' of the occasion and you can see what it had to say below:

The exhibition was one of a series of six around the country and the transport firm Robert Walker (Haulage) Ltd were contracted to move the vehicles around from one venue to another, and their account of the problems encountered during this undertaking is here.

I remember that there wasn't much space available in what Walker's say was the old lion house at Belle Vue Zoo and the only photograph which I managed to take - it's out of focus and the colour transparency has deteriorated somewhat over the years - is below.

Friday's Ferrari

This is another of the cars in the special Ferrari display at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

The board in front of the car reads:

1966

FERRARI 330 P3/4

DRIVEN BY

MAIRESSE & BEURLYS

IN THE 1967 DAYTONA 24 HOURS

& SPA 1000 KM FOR

ECURIE FRANCORCHAMPS

A website called trackthoughts.com has this to say about the Ferrari 330 P3/4:

Ferrari updated 330P3 Spyder s/n 0846 to P4 specifications. The chassis was modified to accept the Tipo 241 engine and the new Tipo 603 gearbox. The bodywork was also updated to accommodate the wider profile tires. This car was officially a 330 P3/4 or as Ing Forghieri described it, a Bastard Ferrari P3/4. The Ferrari factory would ultimately build three genuine 330P4 cars for the 1967 season. To provide additional support, Ferrari converted the older 330P3 series to customer cars and named them 412P. These cars had the 2-valve, 4-liter P3 engines converted to Weber carburetors. Initially the 412Ps used the ZF gearbox but were upgraded to Tipo 603 later in the season. The cars also had modified suspension and bodywork and were similar in appearance to the 330P4s.

Websites about the two races involved refer to the car as a Ferrari 412P and at that time, of course, the car would have been painted in the Belgian colour of yellow.

This car's serial number is 0854 and therefore isn't the car Mairesse and Beurlys drove in the 1967 Daytona race.

Bugatti Type 35B

There are quite a few visitors from France to my blog and especially for them here are are photographs of two Bugatti Type 35Bs which were taken at Oulton Park at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meetings of 1982 and 1987. The Type 35 with its different variations was the most successful of the Bugatti racing models and the 35B was the final version of the series which you can read about here.

This is Hamish Moffatt in his 1926 Type 35B at Lodge Corner in the Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage Trophy race in June 1982.

This is Terry Cardy's 1929 Type 35B in the paddock (above) and at Lodge Corner (below) in the Vintage Trophy race in July 1987.

Just as Ferraris are predominantly  finished in Italian racing red, so Bugattis tend to be mostly seen in French racing blue.

Maserati 250F

Stirling Moss has said that that the Maserati 250F was the nicest front-engined F1 car that he ever drove. It was also the car that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to win the last of his World Championships in 1957. Here's a short YouTube film of him driving a 250F round the Modena Autodrome in what the title to the clip says is 1950, but looks to be either 1957 or 1958. Click on the 'full screen' icon and turn the sound up to get the best effect - and just look at the track he's driving on. The surfaces of some of the minor roads maintained by Tameside Council are in better condition than that one!

The photographs below are of a Maserati 250F at an Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986. The car was at that time owned by Anthony Mayman.

The car at Lodge Corner being driven by Rodney Felton.

The Maserati 250F chassis numbers are well documented and this excellent site shown the full racing history of each of them. This indicates that the Maserati pictured above is chassis number 2516 and this site gives additional information about this particular car.

Friday's Ferrari

On 22 February I featured some photographs of Jan Biekens' Ferrari 156 recreation. That car was partly inspired by the replica of a 1961 Ferrari 156 built by Chris Rea for his film 'La Passione' which is about his boyhood idol, Wolfgang von Trips, who died in one of these cars as a result of an accident in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Chris Rea's replica was at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995 and below are some photographs of the car I took at that meeting.

The car was apparently entered in a Coys auction in 2000 but whether it was sold, and who the current owner is, I don't know.

I saw the original cars race at Aintree in both 1961 and 1962 and the photograph below is of Giancarlo Baghetti's car at the 1962 Aintree 200 race (serial number 0001).

Karl Marx (5 May 1818 - 14 Mar 1883)

Karl Marx, the original Marxist but (as far as I'm aware) no relation to Groucho Marx and his various brothers, died 130 years ago today. He's best known for his collaboration with Friedrich Engels in publishing The Communist Manifesto and for his famous quote: "Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains". It was he who paved the way for visionaries such as Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin and Wolfie Smith, but as well as encouraging the working classes to rise against the yoke of Capitalism a little known side of Marx was the support he gave to artists who often struggled to sell enough of their works to maintain a reasonable standard of living. He was particularly fond of the Post-Impressionists, and it's said that this painting:

 led him to declare: "Artists of the world unite! You have nothing Tolouse but Lautrec".

Emerson Fittipaldi and the Lotus 72

There was a time when F1 racing wasn't confined to world championship Grands Prix and one of the non-championship races on the calendar was the Gold Cup race at Oulton Park. The following photographs were taken at practice for the 1972 Gold Cup race and are of the Lotus 72D of Emerson Fittipaldi, who won the world championship that year.

The Lotus being pushed through the paddock on a thoroughly wet and miserable looking day.

At Old Hall corner during a practice session. The weather had improved considerably by then.

Returning to the still-waterlogged paddock.

On the following day Emerson Fittipaldi finished second in the race, which was won by the McLaren M19A of Denny Hulme.

Friday's Ferrari

This is another car which was part of the Saturday evening auction at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000. It's a Ferrari 250 GT Boano, serial number 0541GT, dating from 1956 and the colour appears to suggest that the car has had a connection with Belgium at some point in its life.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the Boano:

'250 GT Boano and Ellena

Pinin Farina introduced a 250-based prototype at the 1956 Geneva Motor Show which came to be called the 250 GT Boano. Intended as a styling exercise and inspiration to 250 GT Europa customers, demand soon called for construction of a series of the car.

Unable to meet demand, Pinin Farina asked Mario Boano, formerly of Ghia, to handle the construction. When Fiat recruited Boano, he handed production duties of the Ferrari to his son-in-law [Ezio Ellena]. With partner Luciano Pollo, Carrozzeria Ellena would produce the Ferrari for another few years. Ellena revised the car, raising the roof and removing the vent windows from the doors.

Carrozzeria Boano built 74 250 GTs on the long wheelbase chassis.

All but one were coupes. The single convertible, 0461 GT, was sold to New York collector, Bob Lee, off the stand at the 1956 New York Auto Show. At the direction of Enzo Ferrari, Lee bought the car for $9,500-far below cost. He still owns it, making it one of the oldest Ferraris still in the hands of the original purchaser.'

Impersonation?

Saw this car today parked outside Boots next to the market in Hyde.

I know it's a crime to impersonate a police officer, but is it also a crime to impersonate a police car?

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car seen at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992 in the Ferrari Owners Club area.

There's nothing in the programme about the car, but I understood at the time that it was a replica of the 1947 Ferrari 125S which was the first car ever to bear the Ferrari name. I've found an article on a website called 'conceptcarz.com', however, which has the following to say about this car:

'This is the first Ferrari ever built. Proving that they were 'in business,' Enzo Ferrari held a debut on March 12, 1947. Then, Ferrari demonstrated the car, much to the acclaim of the automotive press, as a rolling chassis. On May 25, 1947, this car had become a lovely roadster, looking as it does now. It was driven into the beginning of history by Franco Cortese, to win Ferrari's first race at the Grand Prix of Rome. It went on to a continued successful 1947 racing season. The car was renumbered from 01C to 0101 for 1948, receiving an engine upgrade to 166 and a lighter Corsa body suitable for many types of racing. It could be run with or without fenders and its separate headlights. With that body, this car continued to win races in 1950. (Not to lose any history, the second body had been preserved on a rolling buck.) Now, this car is restored to its original 1947 appearance - done by Italian craftsmen who do special projects for the Ferrari factory.'