Friday's Ferrari

This car was entered in the Italy v Rest of the World race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.

It's a 1953 Ferrari 375MM Berlinetta and was entered and driven by Frenchman Jean Sage

There were 9 of the 375MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta cars built and this one is serial number 0358AM

Edwardian Cars

Here are some photographs of an Edwardian racing car taken at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's a 1913 Theophile Schneider.

It took part in a 4 lap handicap race entered and driven by G. Little.

The programme of the event had this to say about the car after mentioning the oldest car at the meeting, a 1903 Mercedes:

'A 10 year jump from the 1903 Gordon Bennett race brings us to the 1913 French Grand Prix at Amiens, and a car of the type that ran there is due to be at Oulton Park today. It is G. Little's Theophile Schneider, with a long stroke 96 x 190mm, 5600cc engine.'

I can't find any website giving any information about this car but this site on Flickr shows a photograph of the car taken in 2009 and many photographs of other Edwardian cars.

Gordini

Amédée Gordini competed in Grand Prix racing between 1950 and 1956, and also in sports car racing, with cars bearing the Gordini name and later became a performance tuner of Renault and Alpine cars. Gordini is now a division of Renault Sport. Here are some photographs of a 1956 Gordini T16 taken at a Historic Grand Prix Cars Association race meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

In the pit garage

Waiting to go out on a practice run

Back in the pits after the practice run. The car was entered and driven by Marc Valvekens.

The car at McLeans Corner during the race for pre-1961 Grand Prix cars

I saw three of these cars take part in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree driven by Robert Manzon, Hernando da Silva Ramos and Mike Sparken.

Friday's Ferrari

This is another model in the 250GT range, the Ferrari 250GT Lusso. This particular car, serial number 5031GT is seen here at Silverstone at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in August 1996. The car was entered in the 'Coys of Kensington GT Race' by the owner Richard Taylor and was driven in the race by Peter Sugden and Lincoln Small. Although the Wikipedia article says that production of the Lusso didn't start till 1963 the programme of the event says that the car is a 1962 model, which tends to support the view of Peter Coltrin in the Wikipedia article that 'construction of the 250 GT Lusso must have begun soon after the presentation of the prototype of the Paris Motor Show' (in October 1962).

Jersey - The Mansell Collection

On 7 June 2013 I showed some photographs of the Ferrari 640 in the Mansell Collection in Jersey. Here are some of the other photographs I took that day. There are several cabinets containing trophies, racing overalls and other items of memorabilia:

The racing overalls here are from his time at Williams and the police helmets you can see in the centre of the cabinet are from his service as a special constable when he lived in the Isle of Man.

These are his Ferrari racing overalls. When you go to see the collection you get an audio commentary narrated by Nigel telling you about most of the trophies and items in these cabinets, but unfortunately there isn't a brochure available telling you about them so I'm not sure now what most of these trophies are. By enlarging the photo, however, I can see that the inscription on the middle trophy at the bottom of this cabinet reads:

Champion

Miller Genuine Draft 200

June 6, 1993

The Milwaukee Mile

A host of other trophies and the racing overalls from his time in the American CART series. At the bottom of the middle part of this cabinet are some golfing trophies and he's on record as saying that one of his desires was to compete in the British Open Golf Championship (see this Nigel Mansell Wikipedia article)

The Brazilian flag behind the trophy at the top left seems to indicate that it's from the Brazilian Grand Prix which he won in 1989 and 1992.

A display cabinet containing a variety of his crash helmets

On the left is the OBE which he was awarded in 1992, and on the right the CBE awarded in 2012. Next to the OBE is the Queen's Golden Jubilee medal and next to that the Special Constabulary Long Service medal. I don't remember what Nigel had to say about the A$1,000,000 Adelaide Casino chip.

Nigel's three BBC Sportsview Personality of the Year awards; First place in 1986 (middle), first place again in 1992 (right) and third place in 1993 (left).

This is the Williams FW14B with which he won the World Drivers' Championship in 1992

In 2005 and 2006 Nigel competed in the GP Masters one make series in this car based on the 2000 Reynard Champ Car. Only one race was held in 2005, in South Africa, which he won, and in 2006 the series folded after two races, in Qatar which he also won, and at Silverstone where he retired.

This is the Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S with which Nigel competed in the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hour race with his sons Leo and Greg as co-drivers. Unfortunately the car crashed out after a tyre punctured on only the fifth lap with Nigel at the wheel.

The Newman/Haas car with which he won the CART Indycar World Series in the USA in 1993 isn't in the collection, but here's a photograph of the Lola T93 which I took at the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting in August 2008.

Ford GT40

The Wikipedia article on the Ford GT40 says this about the car:

The Ford GT40 is a high performance American-British racing car, built and designed in England (Mk I, Mk II, and Mk III) and in the United States (Mk IV) respectively, and powered by a series of American-built engines, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four consecutive times, from 1966 to 1969 (1966 being the Mk II, 1967 the Mk IV, and 1968-1969 the oldest chassis design, the Mk I). In 1966, at the attendance of Henry Ford II himself in Le Mans, the Mk II GT40 provided Ford with the first overall Le Mans victory for an American manufacturer and the first victory for an American manufacturer at a major European race since Jimmy Murphy´s triumph with Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix. The Mk IV GT40, which won the race in 1967, remains, to this day, the only car designed and built entirely in the United States to claim an overall win at Le Mans.

This is a 1965 Gulf Ford GT40 seen at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996. It was driven in the 'Visage Pre '72 Le Mans Car Race' by the owner Martin Colvill.

Friday's Ferrari

This car was driven in the 'Coys of Kensington GT Race' at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993 by the owner Robin Lodge and Tony Merrick.

It's a 1951 Ferrari 340 America, designed, as the name suggests, for the American market. The serial number is 0082A and you can read the history of this car here.

Guernsey Classic Vehicle Club Show 24 June 2012

Here's the last of the photographs I took at the Guernsey Classic Vehicle Club Show in June last year. I've previously shown photographs on 19 Aug 2012, 9 Jan 2013 and 23 Sep 2013.

This is a 1934 Ford hot rod

A Hillman Minx Series III from the late 1950s or early 1960s - the '1990' sign appears to belong to the row of cars behind this one. You can read the story of the Hillman Minx here.

A Wolseley 1500, again from the late 1950s or early 1960s, and like the Hillman Minx (and several other cars at the show) a visitor from Jersey. You can read here about the Wolseley and its sister car the Riley One-Point-Five.

A 1952 Lincoln Cosmopolitan. If you'd like to own this car it was advertised for sale on 29 Oct 2013 by carandclassic.co.uk.

A Triumph Bonneville, but I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to its year of manufacture

The board to the left of the car says it's a 1957 Austin Metropolitan, a car designed by Nash in the USA but built by the Austin Motor Company in England and marketed as a Nash and later also as a Hudson in the USA. I remember it from the 1950s as a Nash Metropolitan, probably from the 'Observer's Book of Cars'.

Grandson Edward

This is a photograph of our grandson Edward posted on her blog by my daughter-in-law in Guernsey to show what a messy eater he is, and it's just the latest in a series of similar photographs. In this respect he probably takes after his father.

25th March 1982

Friday's Ferrari

This is a 1967 Ferrari 166 Dino/246 Tasman seen in July 2000 at the Coy's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone. It's apparently chassis number 010 and a rather incomplete history of the car is here. The theme for the meeting in 2000 was '50 years of Formula One' and the Ferrari is shown above on display alongside the 1971 Lotus 56B gas turbine engined car and the 1976 McLaren M23.

The car was driven in a track demonstration by Dudley Mason-Styrron and is seen here leaving the pit lane for a practice run.

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v Newport (2 August 1975)

An Inter League Cup match at Belle Vue.

Heat 1: Soren Sjosten (red), Paul Tyrer (blue) & Phil Herne (yellow/black)

Heat 2: Russ Hodgson (blue), Geoff Pusey (red), Brian Woodward (white) & the right leg of Arthur Browning

Heat 3: Phil Crump (yellow/black), Chris Morton (red) & Bob Coles (white)

Heat 5: Phil Herne

Match Result: Belle Vue Aces 50 Newport 28

Ayrton Senna

This is the front cover of the programme for the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003 which included a tribute to the late Ayrton Senna, and in particular commemorating his win in the European Grand Prix at Donington Park ten years earlier in 1993.

There was a display of some of the cars which he drove including the ones pictured below.

This is the Toleman TG184 raced by Senna in 1984

The Lotus 99T which he drove in 1987

The McLaren MP4/8 with which he won the 1993 European Grand Prix

Friday's Ferrari

Today's car is a 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spyder as seen at the Christies International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992. The car wasn't competing but was amongst the Ferraris parked in the paddock at this Ferrari-themed meeting. It's chassis number 0518M - you can read a full history of the car here, and below is a brief history of its early life from www.finecars.cc:

0518M was a 750 Monza Scaglietti Spyder, it was sold to Jacques Swaters, B, he finished the GP Dakar in 5th position, Roger Laurent drove the Monza to a 3rd position in the Voitures de Serie, Spa, but crashed heavily in the GP Bari, during the repair time the Monza received a larger grill and larger side air outlets, in Tourist Trophy Dundrod Jacques Swaters & Johnny Claes finished 13th. In 1956 Andre Pilette crashed in the GP Agadir and 0518M was rebodied in 1956 style cars (500 TR). In 1956 André Pilette; Rousselle, Changy and Milhoux drove the yellow Monza, the following races, GP Porto (6th), GP Rouen (10th), GP Sweden (dnf) and 1000km Paris, Monthlery (4th OA, 4th IC), then it was sold to the USA.