Friday's Ferrari

Here are two old photographs I've come across taken with my Brownie 127 camera during the Friday practice session at the 1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

This is Phil Hill's Ferrari Dino 156 (serial number 0003 61) which finished second in the race to Wolfgang von Trips' identical car whilst Richie Ginther was third in the third Ferrari team car. Phil Hill ended the season as World Champion though.

Four Ferraris were entered in this race, this being the car of Giancarlo Baghetti who had won the French Grand Prix two weeks earlier in his first World Championship race. No such luck in this race, however, as he retired following an accident after 27 of the 75 laps. The serial number of this car is 0002 61.

Bentley Jackson Special 'Old Mother Gun'

On 26th August 1996 the VSCC hosted a race meeting at Oulton Park which was, as the front page of the programme shows below, a 'Race Meeting dedicated to the Memory of Sir Henry Seagrave'.

One of the cars taking part in the ten lap scratch race in memory of Sir Henry Seagrave was the car below.

Shown in the programme simply as a 1930 Bentley Special with a 6648cc capacity engine it is, in fact, the Bentley Jackson Special more commonly known as 'Old Mother Gun' which has a very interesting history, as the extract below from www.ultimatecarpage.com tells us:

'Originally constructed in 1927, serial number ST-3001 was one of the Bentley works-prepared racers for the 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the end of its illustrous career, over 2 decades later, it didn't look anything like it did in 1927. After being rebodied, technically modfied and nicknamed, ST-3001, Jackson Special or Mother Gun remains as one of the best known 'specials'.

Fitted with a four cylinder engine displacing almost 4.4 litre, it was forced to retire in the 1927 Le Mans race after a multiple car shunt. Bentley reconstructed it to campaign at Le Mans the next year. Carefully piloted by Woolf Bernato and Bernard Rubin, it took the overall victory, covering almost 2700 km. It was Woolf Bernato who gave ST-3001 a nickname that stuck, 'Mother Gun'. It was raced once more at Le Mans the next year and finished second behind the winning 6 cylinder engined Bentley. After being campaigned for two more years, it was sold by the works to Richard Marker in 1932.

Marker wasted no time and revised Mother Gun to race at the high-speed Brooklands track. Further modifications were carried through in 1934, as a remaining 6.5 litre 'Speed Six' engine was fitted. Multiple successes were scored by Marker and Margaret Allan at Brooklands and other tracks before 'Old Mother Gun' changed hands again in 1936.

Like the previous owner, Mother Gun's new owner, Robin Jackson, set out to revise ST-3001 to suit his needs. It took Jackson a year to completely revise the chassis, fit a single-seater body and fit new pistons and conrods. In its new guise, the 'Jackson Special' as it was now officially named, reminded of a lot of things but certainly not of the 1928 Le Mans winner. In this shape it still has today it recorded a best lap at Brooklands with an average of a little over 217 km/h. Mother Gun finally retired in 1948 after it was used in a number of speed trials in 1947 and 1948.

 Today it is campaigned by Bentley expert, Stanley Mann, in historic races across Europe. It was he who carried through a thorough restoration in 1989, to restore the Jackson Special to its 1939 form. Like it did in the late 1930s the Jackson Special was out breaking records again shortly after its restoration. In 1992 it covered 1000 miles with an average of just over 100 mph at 168 km/h.'

The race programme shows the owner of the car in 1996 to be Vaughan Davis and the car was driven by Stanley Mann, shown in this photograph at Druids Corner.

Fiat 8V

I remember seeing a photograph and reading about the Fiat 8V in an 'Observer's Book of the Automobile' in the mid-1950s, but I'd never seen one until I went to the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004. The car shown below was amongst the vehicles being displayed by the auctioneers Coys.

I've been through all the Fiat 8Vs pictured in Google Images but this particular car isn't shown, unless it's been re-painted in another colour at some point.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car which appeared in the Allcomers Invitation Race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992. It was entered by Anthony Mayman and driven in the race by John Harper.

The car was shown in the programme as a 1952 Ferrari with an engine capacity of 2496cc

First owned by Frenchman Louis Rosier, hence the blue colour, it was originally a 2 litre1952 Ferrari 500, shown in www.barchetta.cc to be serial number 0186F2

The car was fitted with a 625 engine in 1954 and in one of www.slotforum.com's forums it says:

'Rosier's 500 had a 625 engine that year, for the new 2.5-litre F1, so it was often described as a 500/625.'

I understand that the chassis had to be lengthened to accommodate the larger engine

Maserati 250F

Three Maserati 250Fs took part in the Flockhart Trophy race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 and here is David Wenman's 1957 model being prepared in the paddock prior to the race.

I've been through the list of Maserati 250F serial numbers in the barchetta.cc website but I can't see which of the cars this one is.

Here's the car, driven by Tony Stephens, in the pit lane going on a practice run

During the race here's Tony Stephens following Brandon Smith-Hilliard's 250F, also a 1957 model, at McLean's corner.

Birthday Present

I don't get to see my friend Debbi very frequently and consequently Birthday and Christmas presents can be somewhat belated. This is part of Debbi's Birthday present to me which I received yesterday:

It's a mouse mat featuring grandson Edward so that I can look at his cheeky little face every time I use my computer. Thank you very much, Debbi, how thoughtful of you!

Friday's Ferrari

Another of the Ferraris in the Donington Grand Prix Collection in 1989 was the Ferrari 375 which Tony Vandervell ran in 1951 with a 4½ litre engine using his own thinwall bearings and known as the Thin Wall Special. The Ferrari serial number is 010. This is what it says about the Thin Wall Special in http://8w.forix.com/thinwall.html:

'Guy Anthony Vandervell had ordered a Ferrari Tipo 125 Grand Prix car to be used to prepare the team for the upcoming BRM car. The initially delivered Tipo 125 had a 1.5 liter supercharged V-12 and was raced by Raymond Mays and Ken Richardson in the 1949 International Trophy race. The car carried the “Thinwall Special”, named for Vandervell's bearing company. The car proved a handful and was crashed by Richardson. Vandervell returned the car to Ferrari and took delivery of a second Tipo 125. This car was driven by Alberto Ascari in the 1950 International Trophy race. Ascari spun in the rain and failed to finish. Vandervell again returned the car to Ferrari, who rebuilt the car and added a 4.5 liter unsupercharged V-12 engine. This car ran for the first time with Reg Parnell driving at the 1951 International Trophy race at Silverstone. Parnell managed to finish second in his first heat race.'

This is a photograph of the car taken in May 1989

This photograph was taken in October 1989

Pallot Museum, Jersey - Three more Tractors

Here are three more tractors from the Pallot Museum in Jersey - to see the previous photographs just type 'Pallot Museum' into the 'search' box on the right.

This is a 1936 Ferguson Brown

A 1938 Ford Ferguson

A 1948 Ferguson P3

Jaguar

This is a photograph of a line of Jaguar E-types taken at The 6th Cheshire Cats' Trophy meeting organised by the Jaguar Drivers' Club at Oulton Park on 25th April 1987.

After the Second World War Jaguar had produced three sports car models prior to the E-type in 1961, the XK120 from 1948 to 1954, the XK140 from 1954 to 1957, and the XK150 between 1957 and 1961. Here are photographs of each of these models taken at the same Jaguar Drivers' Club meeting.

The Jaguar XK120

The Jaguar XK140

The Jaguar XK150

Friday's Ferrari

This photograph taken at the Donington Grand Prix Collection (now known as the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition) in May 1989 is of a 1949 Ferrari 125. The car (serial number 114), once owned by Peter Whitehead, was bought by Tom Wheatcroft in 1964 and was the first of what was to become an extensive collection of Grand Prix machinery, eventually being opened to the public in 1973.

This is another photograph of the car, taken in October 1989

BMW 328 Mille Miglia

Here's a car that was on view in the BMW Car Club display area  at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's a BMW 328 Mille Miglia and I seem to recall that the notice in front of the car says that it was the winner of the Mille Miglia in 1940. The programme of the event says this about the vehicles displayed by the various car clubs: '.....among those well worth visiting is the BMW Car Club's which will include this stunning Type 328 Mille Miglia, which finished fifth at Le Mans in 1939 and won the Mille Miglia (although actually titled the Brescia Grand Prix) in 1940.'

Records show, however, that the 1939 fifth place Le Mans car and the 1940 Mille Miglia winner was a BMW 328 Touring Coupe and this is confirmed in an article by www.supercars.net which says this:

'In 1938, BMW achieved one of their first international victories by taking a class win at that year's Mille Milgia. This result was later trumped by an overall victory in 1940 using this one-of coupe 328 Touring Coupe built on chassis 85368.

Being readily available to both amateurs and professionals, the 328 had already become one the leading sports cars by 1940. It participated in most major competitions and won its two litre class almost every time out. Often, the 328 would outclass its larger opposition with smaller and more efficient engineering from designer Fritz Fiedler.

The ultimate race-ready versions of the 328 had tuned engines that would produce 135 bhp and bodies from Touring of Milan who were specialists in aluminum construction. Touring assembled only three cars, two roadsters and a single coupe that lead BMW's factory team in 1939 and 1940.

These Touring-bodied 328s raced LeMans with good results in 1939 and occupied the leading positions in the 1940 Mille Miglia with Fritz Huschke von Hanstein and his copilot Walter Baumer taking overall victory. They completed the 1000 plus miles at an average speed of 100 mph (160 kph) in the sole Touring Coupe. Their winning car used a thin aluminum skin fixed directly to a load-bearing tubular space frame, giving the coupe a weight of only 780 kg and a top speed of 220 km/h (137 mph).

Shortly after this milestone victory, the Mille Miglia Coupe was lost and until its post-war location was discovered in 1945. Robert Grier then revived the crashed wreck raced it briefly before its long 30 year hibernation in a Connecticut garage. Many considered that one of the most important German race cars had been lost until Jim Proffit found and bought the car in the mid eighties. He finished a comprehensive restoration, raced it briefly then sold the car in 2002 to BMW so it could be included it in their Mobile Tradition collection.

Read more at http://www.supercars.net/cars/162.html#OSksM1MK7LebqoVw.99'

So the Touring Coupe still exists, which seems to indicate that the car shown here is one of the two Roadsters referred to above which finished in seventh and ninth places in the 1939 Le Mans race, and one of the BMWs which finished in third, fifth and sixth places in the 1940 Mille Miglia.

Fiat 520

This is a car I photographed in August 1991 at the 10th Northern Classic Car Show which was held at G-Mex, formerly Manchester Central Railway Station and which is now the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

It was on the display stand of the Fiat Motor Club (GB) and identified as a 1928 Fiat Tipo 520. The board in front of the car appears to read:

"URGENTLY NEEDED"
COMPLETE TIPO 520 6 CYL ENGINE 2240 CC SV

MINE HAS MORE CRACK POTS THAN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS!

ALMOST ALL EARLY FIAT RACERS WERE RECALLED AND

DESTROYED BY THE FACTORY.  WHICH MAKES THIS1928

MODEL QUITE UNIQUE. DESIGNED AND BUILT BY

KURT TANK OF FOCKE WULF FW190 FAME. IT WAS

RACED SUCCESSFULLY IN SOUTH AMERICA UNTIL THE

LATE FORTIES.

The bottom bit underneath the chain I can't make out except that it appears to have a contact telephone number.

I can't find any information about this car on the internet, so I don't know if anyone was able to provide the necessary engine.