ISO A3/C

This is one of the cars which competed in the Coys of Kensington Pre 1964 GT Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

Shown in the programme of the event as an Iso A3C, it belonged to Jeremy Agace and was driven by him and Ray Bellm in this 50 minute race. The car was designed by Giotto Bizzarrini for Renzo Rivolta as a successor to the Iso Rivolta IR 300, but when Bizzarrini split from Iso Rivolta he started his own company and the A3C formed the basis of the Bizzarrini 5300 Corsa. The programme said this about the car:

Monaco-based Agace's Iso, the company's Turin show car of '63, benefits from a hulking great 5.3 litre Chevrolet V8 engine, buried as far back as is possible in the cockpit bulkhead for optimum weight distribution. Well balanced and superbly fettled by Paul Lanzante's équipe, its impressive Historic log includes winning last year's Spa 6 hours and the GT class of the Paul Ricard 24 hours in '98. C0-driver Bellm is still seriously quick.

AC Cobra

On 28 March 2015 I showed a couple of photographs of an AC Cobra competing in the HSCC Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992. Here's a photograph of the same car at the Aston Martin Owners' Club's Historic Car Races at Oulton Park six years earlier, in September 1986.

It was entered and driven in the HSCC John Lelliott Post-Historic Road Sports Championship race by Aidan Mills-Thomas - who was the entrant and driver in the Oulton Park race six years later. The programme of the event again shows it as having a 4727cc engine, but strangely shows it as a 1967 car and not 1966 as it was said to be in 1992. The 'E' at the end of the registration number indicates that the car was registered between 1 January 1967 and 31 July 1967 (this was the year that the registration year changed from January-December to August-July, so the 'E' registration period only lasted for seven months), but it's possible that the car was actually built in late 1996.

Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4

I had to go to Stockport recently and decided to have a wander up to St Mary's Way while I was there to have a look at the Lamborghini Manchester dealership run by HR Owen. There was one car outside the showroom and here are some photographs I took of it.

It's a Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4

I'll be back there next week to buy one when I've won the EuroMillions Lottery.

Friday's Ferrari

This is another photograph of the 1954 Ferrari 625 which took part in the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

When in 1954 the 2½ litre Formula replaced the 2 litre Formula 2 under which the World Championship had been contested in 1952 and 1953, Ferrari lengthened the chassis of the Ferrari 500 which had proved unbeatable for the previous 2 years and fitted it with the larger engine. The car wasn't particularly successful and efforts were made in 1954 and 1955 to improve Ferrari's chances with the 553 Squalo and 555 Super Squalo, but to no great effect. Alexander Boswell drove this car at the Donington meeting.

Morris Cowley

I took this photograph on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1991.

It's not shown in the programme of the event, but it's a 1929 Morris Cowley Flatnose - so called to differentiate it from the more well-known Bullnose. Cowley was a suburb of Oxford where the manufacture of Morris cars started in 1919 and the names 'Cowley' and 'Oxford' were used for a variety of Morris vehicles from that time up until the 1970s.

The Maserati Club

At many historic car race meetings there are areas set aside for various car clubs to gather and put on a display of their members' cars. Here are some photographs of one such display, by the Maserati Club, at the Silverstone Classic meeting of July 2010.

1974 Maserati Quattroporte MkII Prototype

1954 OSCA MT4 - built by the Maserati brothers who had started the OSCA company in 1947 after fulfilling their contract with Adolfo Orsi, to whom they had sold the Maserati company.

1963 Maserati 5000 GT

1964 Cooper T61 Maserati - a Cooper Monaco T61 with a 4.9 litre Maserati V8 engine which was driven in the 1-hour Italian Historic Car Cup race at this meeting by the owner, Michael O'Shea, partnered by Roberto Giordanelli.

Saab Sonett

I took this photograph at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

The yellow car is a Saab Sonett V4 and the white one a Saab Sonett II.

Mini Cooper S

I took this photograph in August 1989 at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester.

It's a 1967 Mini Cooper S MkII and was on the stand of the Mini Cooper Register. Unfortunately there's no information about this car in the brochure of the event.

Lotus 97T & 98T

As part of the Donington Park 'Tribute to Ayrton Senna' at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting in June 2003 there was a demonstration run by some of the F1 cars Ayrton Senna drove in his career, including the two pictured below.

This is the Lotus 97T driven by Ayrton Senna in the 1985 season, winning two of the races whilst his team-mate Elio de Angelis won one.

Here's the 97T passing the pits during a morning warm-up session.

This is the Lotus 98T, a development of the 97T, which the team ran in the 1986 season. Senna again took two victories with this car whilst his team-mate Johnny Dumfries didn't manage to finish above fifth place in any race.

These photographs of the 98T were taken in the pits during the morning warm-up session.

The 98T returning to its pit. The two Ferraris in the background are the 1972 712 Can-Am Spyder of Carlos Monteverde  (serial number 1010), driven that day by David Franklin, and the 1972 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione of John Bosch (serial number 14407).

Brabham BT30

This car took part in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy Race at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting of June 2004.

It's the 1969 Formula 2 Brabham BT30 of David Brown, chassis number BT30/15, and you can read some of the history of the car in this article by oldracingcars.com.

Friday's Ferrari

On 21 August 2015 I showed a photograph of one of the two 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa cars which took part in the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park in April 1958. Here's a photograph of the other one.

This was the one entered for Freddy Rousselle - the race was run as two heats and a final and Freddy Rousselle didn't manage in his heat to qualify the car for the final. World Sports Racing Prototypes says that this car is serial number 0736TR and that Alain de Changy's car at Oulton Park was 0724TR, but the www.barchetta.cc record shows that the car which finished sixth at Le Mans in 1958 (0736TR) didn't have the central red stripe (whereas 0724TR did), so it looks as if the World Sports Racing Prototype record is incorrect and the car above is 0724TR.

Dodge Truck

This is one of the commercial vehicles we saw in the Pallot Steam, Motor & General Museum in Jersey when we visited in May 2013.

It's a 1933 Dodge truck, produced after the company had been sold to Chrysler in 1928.

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Porsche 962C

On 19 May 2015 I showed a photograph of a Porsche 962C taking part in a race for Group C/GTP Sports Cars at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005. Here's another photograph of one of these cars, this time at the Donington Park SeeRed meeting of September 2007.

This time it's the Porsche 962C which was due to be driven in the Group C/GTP Sports Car race by Mark Sumpter and Mike Jordan.

Here's the car during the morning practice/qualifying session at McLean's Corner

Here it is during the race at Redgate corner leading the Chevrolet Intrepid RM-1 GTP car of Brian Devries and the Nissan R90CK of Nick Randall.

Ermini

Ermini was one of a number of small Italian manufacturers in the 1940s and 50s and into the 1960s producing sports cars based on small capacity production engines, in this case the Fiat 1100cc. Here's one of those cars which took part in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1953 Ermini 1100 Sport and was driven in the race by Edoardo Tenconi.

MGs at Oulton Park (3)

On 20 September 2015 I showed some photographs of MGs on the track at the VSCCs Hawthorn Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park on 18 July 2015. On 8 October 2015 I showed photographs of some of the competitors' MG cars in the paddock at that meeting, and now here are photographs of some of the MGs I saw amongst the spectators' cars at that event. I'm not such an expert that I can distinguish between some models of MG, so I can't positively identify some of these cars. Please let me know if you can identify any that I may have named wrongly.

This appears to be a T-type, probably a TA or TB, but definitely not a TD or TF.

1947 MG TC

1935 MG PA

MG TF

This is probably an MG PA

1935 MG PA Midget

I think this is another MG PA

1933 MG J3

1931 MG C-type Montlhery

MG Magnette ZB

MGA Roadster

Foden S18 FG6/15

This is a lorry entered in the class for 'Commercial Vehicles over 3 tons' at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in September 1993 at Heaton Park, Manchester.

It's a 1950 Foden S18 FG6/15 and the programme of the event said this about the vehicle:

Foden FG6/15  1950                                         ODH 255
Entered by D Scholey, Skipton
This Gardner-engined Foden has a 12 speed gearbox.

Foden trucks ceased production in July 2006 but The Foden Society has a great deal of information about the marque.

Benetton B195

A demonstration run by Formula One cars at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006 included the car pictured below.

It's a 1995 Benetton B195, with a 3 litre Renault V10 engine. It's the car with which Michael Schumacher won 9 of the 17 races and the World Championship in the 1995 season, his team mate Johnny Herbert winning 2 races.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a photograph I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997 which featured a tribute to Ferrari with a large display of cars.

It's a 1955 Ferrari 555 Super Squalo and I previously showed a photograph of this car on 20 April 2012. After an unsuccessful season as a Ferrari team car it was fitted with a 3½ litre 860 Monza engine and used for Formula Libre racing in Australia and New Zealand, at which time the serial number, originally 555/1, was changed to FL/9001. Some years later a Chevrolet V8 engine was fitted, together with a Morris Minor body. Much more recently it was restored back to its original 1955 Super Squalo configuration and reunited with its original engine.

NB: When I write these little notes that accompany the photographs I've taken I rely not only on my memory, but also on little articles in the programmes of the events concerned and information gleaned from the internet. It's only natural that errors might creep in from time to time therefore, but there's one about this car in the programme which I hadn't spotted before - it says this:

'The 'Super Squalo', meanwhile, last appeared on these shores in 1955, when Mike Hawthorn drove it to sixth place in that year's British Grand Prix at Aintree. Silverstone this weekend also marks only the second time the car has raced since it was last used in competition in 1962, in Australia's Tasman series. "After that ir was left over there and its condition sent downhill rapidly," adds Tony Merrick. "It was rescued and brought to England in the early 1980s; we got our hands on it three years ago and restored it."

I went to the 1955 British Grand Prix and I can remember how disappointed I was that day that the Ferrari team consisted of three of the older 625 models for Mike Hawthorn, Maurice Trintignant and Eugenio Castellotti instead of the Ferrari 555 Super Squalos I was hoping to see.

Talbot Doctor's Coupe

This is a photograph I took on the Exchange Station car park before the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1990.

It's a 1925 Talbot Doctors Coupe, and the programme of the event just has the following basic details about it:

56     1925 Talbot Doctors Coupe

          Reg: XX 2957  4 cylinder  9 hp

          (Robert Barker, Trawden)

Aston Martin DB2 at Oulton Park

I didn't realise until I was back home and looking at the photographs I had taken at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May this year just how many photographs I had taken of one particular car.

It's not shown in the programme of the event, but it's the 1951 Aston Martin DB2 Lightweight of Glynn Allen and Julian Bailey-Watts, photographed here in the paddock.

It took part in two races at the meeting, the AMOC '50s Sports Car race and the Equipe GTS race.

The practicing/qualifying took place in the morning starting at 8.30, the racing started at 1.30 in the afternoon, and I went to various parts of the circuit throughout the day to watch and take photographs.

This is the map of the circuit printed in the programme. and I first went to Lodge Corner to watch the early part of practice.

Here's the DB2 at Lodge Corner

During that practice session I walked down to Old Hall Corner.....

.....where one of the photographs I took was of the same car.

After the lunch interval I went to Druids Corner for the first race then made my way to the furthest part of the circuit at Shell Oils Corner to watch the next couple of races.

Race 2 was the '50s Sports Car race and I took another photograph of the Aston going through the Britten's chicane. It was driven in this race by Darren Roberts.

I walked round towards Shell Oils Corner and took my next photograph of the car as it approached Island Bend.

From that point you can see the whole of Shell Oils Corner, as the next photograph shows - I took it to show the whole of the loop, but the car you can see on the extreme right of the group of 3 cars is the DB2.

When I first started going to Oulton Park in 1955 the corner was known as Esso Bend and spectators could only go round to just short of where Britten's chicane is now, so you couldn't see the loop at all.

Here's the Aston coming round the last part of the loop.....

.....and approaching the Britten's chicane.

The Equipe GTS race was Race 4 and when that race was in progress I was walking round the inside of the circuit from Cascades towards Old Hall Corner.

Here's the Aston approaching Cascades, being driven in Race 4 - the Equipe GTS race - by Glynn Allen.