Cooper Monaco

I took this photograph at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's Donington International Grand Prix meeting in May 2004.

Both cars belong to Anthony Ditheridge, and number 20 is a 1959 Cooper Monaco T49 which the programme of the event says has a 1960cc engine. The car was named the 'Monaco' by Charles and John Cooper after Jack Brabham's victory in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix. Car number 8 is a 1958 Cooper T45, also with a 1960cc engine according to the programme. The T45 was developed for Formula 2 racing and  it would have originally had a 1½ litre engine.

Ford Model A

This car took part in the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1986 and is seen here at the start of the run in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.

It's a 1928 Ford Model A, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it had a 4 cylinder 14 hp 1800cc engine and was entered for the run by Peter C O'Callaghan  of Wrea Green, Preston, Lancs.

Gordon Keeble

The parking area to the left of the track that leads from the paddock entrance towards the Knickerbrook area of the circuit at Oulton Park is frequently reserved for the members of various owners' clubs at the Historic and Classic Car meetings at Oulton Park. Here's a photograph I took in that area at the Gold Cup meeting there in May 2002.

Gordon Keeble produced 100 cars with a 5.4 litre Chevrolet V8 engine and a Williams & Prichard Limited glass fibre body between 1964 and 1967, and here we have three of those cars belonging to members of the Gordon Keeble Owners Club. The blue car is chassis number 022, then chassis 054 and finally chassis 095.

Daimler CVG6LX

This is a photograph I took in Heaton Park, Manchester at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in September 1993.

As with many vehicles at these rallies, there's no record of this vehicle in the programme of the event, but it's a 1966 Daimler CVG6LX with East Lancs H41/29F bodywork. It was with Huddersfield Corporation until taken over by the West Yorkshire PTE in 1974 and finally withdrawn from service in 1980 and taken over by the Huddersfield Passenger Transport Group. In 2010 Colin Sidaway took on the ownership, and there's now a website dedicated to Huddersfield 472.

Sunbeam

The theme of the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993 was 'British Racing Green', and here's one of the cars that featured in a display in the paddock.

This is a 1914 Sunbeam, one of a team of three built to compete in the Tourist trophy race in the Isle of Man. Designed by Sunbeam's chief designer Louis Coatalen these cars had a 3.3 litre 4 cylinder, 16 valve engine and were a copy of the 1913 Peugeot that Coatalen had acquired and stripped down in order to produce engineering drawings that differed only in the slightly larger bore on the Sunbeam version. Two of the cars failed to finish, but the third car driven by Kenelm Lee Guinness won the race.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at McLean's Corner during a Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Leading is Peter Hardman in the 1966 Ferrari 412P of Harry Leventis (#0844), followed by the 1959 Maserati Tipo 61 of Carlo Vögele (#2454) and the 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB of Vincent Gaye (#2069GT).

Lister Jaguar

This car competed in the Historic Car Championship Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1992.

It's Steve O'Rourke's 1959 Lister Jaguar. The original TUN 708 was written off in an accident and the remains were used to re-create this replica.

Steve O'Rourke waiting in the pit lane to join the circuit during a practice session.

Steve O'Rourke was the manager of Pink Floyd and combined this with his motor racing activities, competing in the Le Mans 24 Hour race on several occasions and finishing in fourth place in 1998 in a McLaren F1 GTR partnered by Tim Sugden and Bill Auberlen. Sadly he died in Miami in 2003 after suffering a stroke.

ERA R4D

Here's a photograph taken in the paddock at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

The car nearest the camera is Mac Hulbert's 1935 ERA R4D which took part in the Historic Seaman Trophy race, as did the car furthest away, the 1938 ERA E-Type GP1 of Duncan Ricketts. You can read the history of all the ERA cars here. The car in the middle is Chris Podger's 1930 Alvis Silver Eagle which competed in one of the handicap races at this meeting.

Cooper T45 Climax

This is a photograph I took on practice day at Aintree for the British Grand Prix in July 1959.

It's Bruce McLaren in his Cooper T45 Climax. He qualified in eighth place on the grid and finished the race in third place behind his team mate (and World Champion-to-be) Jack Brabham in a Cooper T51 and Stirling Moss in the light green British Racing Partnership BRM P25. Bruce McLaren finished the season in sixth place in the Championship winning the final race of the year, the US Grand Prix at Sebring.

Turtle Drilling Special

This car competed in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's Pre '65 Grand Prix Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It was driven in the race by Valentine Lindsay and it's the 1960 Meskowski Schmidt Offenhauser Special in the #23 'Turtle Drilling Special' livery in which it failed to qualify for the 1962 Indianapolis 500 Mile race in the hands of Leon Clum. Originally built by Wally Meskowski for Peter Schmidt for the 1960 Indianapolis race, it was driven as #44 by Bob Veith and finished in eighth place. By 1998 it had returned to the USA and was repainted in its 1960 livery.

Cord 812

A regular feature of the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting when it was held at Oulton Park was the Concours d'Elegance (usually abbreviated to 'Concours'), and indeed it's a feature of many VSCC events. The cars would usually line up early in the day close to the paddock where the judging would eventually be carried out, after which the cars would complete a parade lap of the circuit. Here's a photograph I took of one of the cars entered in the Concours event at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's a 1937 Cord 812 Sedan entered by R A J Thompson.

Cooper T51 Maserati

I took this photograph in the paddock at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

It's not listed in the programme of the event and didn't take part in any of the races, but it's a 1959 Cooper T51 Maserati. It looks as if it's one of the cars campaigned by Guglielmo Dei's Scuderia Centro Sud in 1959 and 1960. Hans Herrmann drove one in the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph outside the Ferrari Owners Club marquee at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Bernard Worth's 1953 Ferrari 166MM Vignale Spyder, originally chassis number 0328M but re-numbered to 0050M and then again to 0308M. Bernard Worth bought the car in 1960 and was still to be seen driving the car in April this year at Castle Combe at the age of 83.

York Minster

When I showed some photographs recently of our holiday in York in October I said that I'd show some more photographs of York Minster at a later date and here are a few more photographs that we took there.

This is the view approaching York Minster from the west, with St Wilfrid's Catholic Church on the left here.....

.....and here is the West Front of the Minster.....

.....and the Great West Door.

Dean's Park Garden is on the north side of the Minster and on the north side of the park is a series of stone archways, part of the old Archbishop's Palace which once stood here, and is now the Kohima Memorial to the Army's 2nd Division that was based in York before and after the Second World War. Behind the middle arch is a cross surrounded by a wreath and a brass plate on which is inscribed John Maxwell Edmonds' famous epitaph:

When you go home, tell them of us and say

For their tomorrow, we gave our today.

Which is also carved on the memorial of the 2nd British Division in the War Cemetery in Kohima in north east India commemorating the Battle of Kohima in 1944.

Adjacent to the Kohima Memorial is the Minster Library, now known as the Old Palace  - previously the chapel of the Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the only part of that Palace left standing. A plaque on the wall of the building commemorates the fact that it was here in 1483 that Richard III invested his son as Prince of Wales.

Just round the corner from the Minster Library is the Treasurer's House, which takes its name from the Treasurers of York Minster as part of it in medieval times was their official residence.

A little further round, on College Street is St William's College, originally built in 1465 for York Minster's Chantry Priests.

Facing St William's College is the east side of the Minster with the Great East Window.

Continuing round to you south side of the Minster you pass the Minster School, an independent preparatory school that was founded to educate choristers at York Minster, although it does not now exclusively do so.

You are now on the South side of the Minster and can see the South Transept with, high in the gable, the huge Rose Window.

Adjacent to the South Transept sits a statue of the Emperor Constantine the Great who was proclaimed Emperor in York on the death of his father there in AD306. Photographs of the statue show him with a sword in his left hand, but apart from the pommel there's no sign of it in my photo. Apparently the statue had been vandalised about a month before we went to York.

Opposite the statue of Constantine, on the other side of Deansgate, stands a solitary Roman column which came from the interior of the Roman Basilica that stood on the present site of York Minster and dates to around the year AD300.

A plaque which is affixed gives you some information about the column.

This last photograph was taken from the city walls close to the railway station - it's a pity it wasn't a sunny day though...

I'll show some photographs soon of the inside of the Minster.

BRM P25

Here are two cars that competed in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers Race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

This is the 1958 BRM P25 of John Harper, chassis number P25/9.

Here's a view of the car without the rear bodywork showing the single rear disc brake on the transmission which often failed on the early P25s.

This is the second 1958 BRM P25 which took part in the race, that of The Hon. Amschel Rothschild.

Here's The Hon. Amschel Rothschild at Lodge Corner during the race. This car is the one that won the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix in the hands of Joakim Bonnier, BRM's first World Championship victory, and is chassis number P25/8.

Aston Martin Le Mans

This car took part in the 2 hour long VSCC Team Relay Race for Pre-war Sports Cars at the SeeRed & Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's Christopher Scott Mackirdy's 1½ litre 1933 Aston Martin Le Mans, The Le Mans was produced between 1932 and 1933 with either 2 or 4 seat body and 130 cars were built in total.

Austin Healey 100M

This car took part in the HSCC Historic Road Sports Championship Race at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

It's the 1955 Austin Healey 100M of Kate Arthurs. The 100M was a high-performance version of the Austin Healey BN2 although not intended to be used solely for racing, unlike the 100S.

Tyrrell 001

This car competed in the FORCE Classic Grand Prix race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It's the 1970 Tyrrell 001

It was driven by Jackie Stewart in the last three races of the 1970 season (but retired on each occasion) and in the first race of the 1971 season in which he finished in second place. Tyrrell 003 then became available and Jackie Stewart won six of the remaining races in the 1971 season to become World Drivers' Champion.

The car was driven at Oulton Park in 2003 by American John Delane.

1930s Cars

Two cars that I photographed in the Vintage Car Park area on the inside of Redgate corner at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

On the left is a 1935 Morris 10/6 Special with Cunard bodywork. Two different types of four-seater tourer bodies were fitted to the 10/6 Special, Morris Motors' version, and one by the Cunard Motor and Carriage Co. Ltd, who fitted a variety of bodies to different Morris models in the 1930s and had provided bodies for a large number of Napier cars in the 1920s. The car on the right is a 1930 Bugatti Type 44 with a 24 valve straight-eight 3 litre engine. The chassis number of this car is 441237.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph in the pit lane at Silverstone during a practice session at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in July 1999.

It's Christoph Stieger in Engelbert Stieger's 1972 Ferrari 312P, chassis number 0888, a car not listed in the programme of the event and Christoph Stieger was down to drive number 55, his Ferrari 250 GTO. The 312P was originally numbered 55 and on 26 June 2015 I showed a photograph of the car I had taken earlier in the day in the pit garage before it had been changed to 95. The car bears the names of Jackie Ickx and Brian Redman who had driven this car in one race in the 1972 World Sportscar Championship season, and in several races in the 1973 season.

Renault 750

This car was on the stand of the Renault Owners Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1994.

It's a 1954 Renault 750, known in France as a 4CV, but the one manufactured at the British Renault factory in Acton was marketed as a '750'.

Brabham BT35

This car competed in the Historic Formula Racing Cars race at the HSCC's Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1995.

It's Lincoln Small's 1971 Brabham BT35, shown in the programme of the event as having a 1600cc engine, so presumably it's a BT35C Formula 3 car.

Here's Lincoln Small during the race at Deer Leap, and you can see how much the track here drops down after Lodge Corner.

Williams Renault FW14B

The 1998 Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July of that year included a display of 50 cars, one for each year of racing at Silverstone since 1948. Here's one of the cars that featured in that display.

To represent 1992 Frank Williams had sent along the Williams Renault FW14B with which Nigel Mansell won the World Drivers' Championship that year. You can see that it bears the famous 'Red 5'.

Bequet Delage

This car took part in the Vintage Seaman Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed & Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's Alexander Boswell's 1923/17 Bequet Delage, which started off life in 1923 as a Delage 2LCV with a 2 litre V12 engine. When Maurice Bequet took possession of the then engine-less car he decided to mate it with the 12 litre V8 Hispano Suiza engine from a 1917 World War 1 SPAD fighter plane. The car was later acquired in a sorry state by Nigel Arnold-Forster who restored it in 1980.

Mike Hawthorn

This is a photograph taken at Oulton Park at, I think, the British Empire Trophy meeting in April 1956. Not a terribly good photograph, and taken with a Kodak Brownie 127.

It's Mike Hawthorn, destined to become England's first Formula 1 World Champion in 1958 at the wheel of a Ferrari Dino 246. At this British Empire Trophy race he drove a Lotus Eleven and finished in fourth place behind the winner Stirling Moss in a Cooper T39 Bobtail with Colin Chapman in a Lotus Eleven in second place and Roy Salvadori in a Cooper T39 Bobtail in third place.