Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph in the pit lane at the Richard Seaman memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's the engine of one of the Ferraris involved in a series of track demonstration runs by Ferrari F1 cars, and it's the 1,496cc V6 turbocharged Tipo 033A engine that powered the 1988 Ferrari F1/87/88C. The F1/87/88C was an updated version of the 1987 Ferrari F1/87, and with this car in 1988 Gerhard Berger won the Italian Grand Prix, had two second and two third place finishes, and this together with five more points-scoring efforts gave him third place in that season's Drivers' World Championship. Team mate Michele Alboreto had a second and two third place finishes and points for a series of minor place finishes enabled him to end up in fifth place in the Championship. Ferrari finished in second place in the Constructors' World Championship which was won convincingly by the McLaren Honda team, with their drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the MP4/4 finishing first and second respectively in the Drivers' World Championship, way ahead of the rest of the field.

Two Maseratis

Here's two of the cars that were in the Manchester United car park on 11 January 2020.

This car is a 2013 Maserati Quattroporte with a 3,797cc twin-turbocharged F154 V8 engine.

This car is a 2019 Maserati Levante GTS also with the 3,797cc twin-turbocharged F154 V8 engine.

Three Aston Martins

I took these photographs at Lodge Corner during the morning qualifying session for the 45 minute long Intermarque Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2015.

This is the 2009 Aston Martin GT4 of Dr Robin Marriott, which is an updated version of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 and has a 4,735cc V8 engine.

The programme of the event says that this car driven by Steven Byrne and Spencer Marsh in the race is a 2007 Aston Martin N24, but says that it has a 4.7 litre engine which suggests that it's been brought up to GT4 specifications as the N24 was originally produced with a 4,280cc V8 engine.

This is the 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Coupé of Geoffrey Lewis and has the 4,735cc V8 engine.

1981 Brabham BT49C

I took this photograph at Redgate corner during a practice session for the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

It's Spanish driver Joaquin Folch in his 1981 Brabham BT49C, chassis #BT49/10, an improved version of the original BT49 of 1979. The car was powered by the 2,993cc V8 Cosworth DFV engine and was driven in the 1981 season by Nelson Piquet and Héctor Rebaque. Nelson Piquet won the Drivers' World Championship that year, finishing first in three races, second in one and third in another three. With three other minor points scoring places that was enough to win him the World Championship by one point from Carlos Reutemann. Héctor Rebaque finished in tenth place with his best efforts being three fourth-place finishes.

1990 Jaguar XJR-12

This car is one of a number of Jaguars that were on display in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994

It's a 1990 Jaguar XJR-12 in the Silk Cut Jaguar colours of the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Team that won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1990. The car was built by Tom Walkinshaw's team with backing from Jaguar and has a 6,995cc V12 engine in an RMR layout. The winning car in the 1990 Le Mans race was driven by John Nielson, Price Cobb and Martin Brundle. Another Silk Cut Jaguar finished in second position in the race driven by Jan Lammers, Andy Wallace and Franz Konrad.

1962 BRM P578

I took this picture at the approach to Waterway Corner at Aintree during practice for the British Grand Prix in July 1962.

It's Graham Hill in the BRM P578 practice car - in the race he drove the 1962 BRM P578, chassis P578/1 with the upright 'stack pipe' exhausts, in which he qualified in fifth place on the grid with Jim Clark in the Lotus 25 in pole position. In the race Jim Clark led from start to finish and Graham Hill ended up in fourth place, thanks in part to mechanical problems suffered by the Lotus 24 of Innes Ireland who had qualified ahead of Graham Hill. The BRM had been introduced in 1961 as the P57 with a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc Coventry Climax FPF engine as BRM's new V8 1½ litre engine was still on the drawing board at the start of the season. By 1962 the P56 BRM 1,498cc V8 engine was available and the car was re-designated as the P578 in acknowledgement of the V8 unit. Jim Clark was the man to beat that season, but although he won three of the races he was plagued by retirements in another four and Graham Hill won the Drivers' World Championship with four victories and four other points-scoring places. BRM also won the Constructors' World Championship.

1935 Rover Speed 14 Streamline Coupé

This car was one of the entrants in the Cheshire Concours d'Elegance a the Vintage Sports Car Club's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's the 1935 Rover Speed 14 Streamline Coupé of Malcolm Mountain. The original Rover 14 P1 was introduced in 1933 with a 1,577cc 6-cylinder inline engine with a single Solex downdraught carburettor. The Streamline Saloon and Streamline Coupé were offered as alternative bodies in 1934,  and in the same year the Speed 14 Streamline Coupé was produced with a tuned engine and triple SU carburettors. Production of this car continued until 1936 and 380 were manufactured in total. 

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in rounds of the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge series at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

It's the Ferrari 166/195 of American Stephen Dudley which started off life in 1950 as a Vignale bodied Ferrari 166 Inter with a 1,995cc Gioacchino Colombo designed V12 engine. In 1951 it was brought up to Ferrari 195 Inter specifications with the 2,341cc version of the Colombo V12 engine. The car is chassis #0071S.

On 6 September 2013 I showed a photograph of this car that I had taken at Silverstone in 1998.

1957 Aston Martin DBR2

The theme of the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993 was 'British Racing Green' and this was one of the cars on display in the paddock.

It's a 1957 Aston Martin DBR2, one of two cars that were built using chassis from the Lagonda DP166 project and the then new 6-cylinder inline 3,670cc engine, and this is chassis #DBR2/2. The other car, #DBR2/1 competed in the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hour race but retired after eight hours of the race. After taking first and third places in the Daily Express Trophy race at Silverstone DBR2/1 didn't race again that season and DBR2/2 only took part in a series of races in the Bahamas. For 1958 the FIA set the engine capacity for the World Sportscar Championship at 3 litres which made the DBR2 ineligible and Aston Martin concentrated their efforts that season on the smaller-engine DBR1. The DBR2 was given a larger 3,910cc engine and competed in races at British circuits - I remember seeing both cars in the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park where Stirling Moss won and Tony Brooks finished second, and in the sports car race at the Aintree 200 meeting where Roy Salvadori finished in second place and Tony Brooks failed to finish. The cars also competed at Goodwood, where Stirling Moss won the Sussex Trophy race, and at Silverstone, where Roy Salvadori and Tony Brooks finished in fourth and fifth places in the Daily Express Trophy race. After being raced in a Sportscar GP race at Spa by Paul Frère and Carroll Shelby (finishing second and third) the cars were given 4,164cc engines and sent to the USA where they competed in a number of races, usually driven by George Constantine and Bob Oker. The cars remained in the USA in 1959, returning to the UK in 1960 to be driven in minor races at Brands Hatch and Silverstone.

As I said at the start of this piece, the DBR2 was part of a display of 'British Racing Green' at this Silverstone meeting (you can see some of the other cars behind it), but whose idea was it to display the car behind a fence like this?

On 12 July 2016 I showed photographs of both the Aston Martin DBR2s that I had taken at the Coys meeting at Silverstone in 1995.

1965 BMW 1800 TISA

This car competed in the U2TC Touring Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

It's the 1965 BMW 1800 TISA of Richard Shaw and Jackie Oliver, one of three such cars to take part in the race. The BMW 1800 was introduced in 1963 with the 1,773cc 4-cylinder inline M10 engine and the 1800 TI (Turismo Internazionale) model had upgrades, including twin caburettors and higher compression pistons developed by the Alpina tuning company. In 1964 the 1800 TISA (Turismo Internatzionale Sport Ausführung) was introduced as a homologation special, 200 examples of which were built and only sold to drivers who were holders of a racing licence.

500cc Formula 3 cars at Donington Park

I took this photograph at McLeans Corner during the 5 lap Scratch Race for Formula 3 Racing Cars at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

Leading is the 1952 Cooper Mk VI of George Shackleton with close behind on the right the 1954 Cooper Mk VIII of Nigel Challis. The red car, mostly hidden by George Shackleton's Cooper, is the 1955 Petty F3 car of David Lecoq, and behind that is the yellow 1952 Kieft CK52 of Rodney Delves. Bringing up the rear in this photograph is the blue 1955 Cousy No2 of John Jones. There's a thriving 500 Owners Association with details of lots of the cars that have competed in 500cc racing since it started in 1946.

On 16 February 2016 I showed photographs of several of the 500cc cars that I had taken in the paddock at this meeting.

1953 HWM Jaguar

This car took part in the HGPCA Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1953 HWM Jaguar of Clive Rides, and he's waiting here in the paddock to go out on the track for the morning practice session. John Heath and George Abecassis, partners at Hersham and Walton Motors, had built Alta powered cars which they raced in the 1948 and 1949 seasons, then for the 1950 season they built three Alta powered cars that could be adapted to race in both Formula 2 and sports car events and with which they could spend the season travelling from race to race on the continent. That season they took part in 20 international events over 27 weeks commuting backwards and forwards to run their garage whilst the team took the cars to the next meeting and prepared them for racing. Other drivers were taken on to drive the third car, including a 20 year old Stirling Moss who had previously only raced a 500cc F3 Cooper. Despite their lack of power compared to the other cars they enjoyed a relatively successful season. For the 1951 season the HWMs became proper F2 single seaters and they continued their European exploits over the next three years with the help of drivers such as Peter Collins, Harry Schell and Paul Frère. In 1953 John Heath and George Abecassis fitted a Jaguar engine to a modified HWM F2 chassis and gave it an all-enveloping two-seater body to compete in sports car racing. Originally given the registration number HWM 1 it was later given the number YPG 3 and is the car shown in the photograph above. This car was driven by George Abecassis in the 1954 Mille Miglia race but failed to finish - his co-driver was motoring journalist Denis Jenkinson, who was co-driver for Stirling Moss in the winning Mercedes-Benz 300SLR the following year. Several more sports car were built by HWM, some of which are still active in historic racing, but the HWM team lost most of its impetus with the death of John Heath in the 1956 Mille Miglia.

1959 Tec-Mec F415

This car competed in the Hawthorn Memorial Race at the VSCC's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

Shown in the programme of the event as a Technica Mechanica it's better known as the 1959 Tec-Mec F415 designed by Valerio Colotti as a lightweight version of the Maserati 250F. Colotti was employed by Maserati and was working on the design when Maserati pulled out of racing at the end of the 1958 season. He set up his own company, Studio Tecnica Meccanica, and Italian racing driver Giorgio Scarlatti encouraged him to continue with this work and bought shares in the company. American Gordon Pennington then persuaded Scarlatti to sell him the shares and arranged for Camoradi's Lucky Casner to run the team for what had now become Tec-Mec Automobili. When finished the car was entered for the 1959 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen and Brazilian driver Fritz d'Orey was chosen to drive it. The car had clearly not gone through sufficient testing and Fritz d'Orey only qualified it in seventeenth place. It only lasted for six laps in the race before it retired with a serious oil leak and that turned out to be the only World Championship appearance by the car. It lingered in a Miami garage until 1967 when it was acquired by Tom Wheatcroft who brought the car back into working order and it was in his museum at Donington Park for many years. It was eventually sold to Barrie Baxter who drove the car at this Oulton Park meeting and raced it successfully before eventually passing the car on to Barry Wood.

Here's Barrie Baxter at Britten's chicane during the race followed by Duncan Ricketts in 'Mac' Hulbert's ERA R4D and Matt Gillies in Rodney Smith's ERA R3A. Behind them are the Kurtis Indy Roadster of Stuart Harper and the Cooper Bristol MkII of either Mary Grant-Jonkers or Paul Grant, who drove two identical cars in the race.

1924 Vauxhall 30/98 OE

This car competed in two races, including the 2-hour long VSCC Team Relay race, at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1924 Vauxhall 30/98 OE of Phil Dobbin and he shared the driving in the 'Vaguely Vauxhall' team in the relay race with three other Vauxhall 30/98s. The 30/98 OE was an updated version of the 30/98 E with overhead valves and a detachable cylinder head instead of the side-valves and fixed cylinder head of the earlier car. A shorter stroke gave the OE an engine capacity was 4,224cc instead of the E's 4,525cc.

Friday's Ferrari

This was one of the Ferraris that attended the Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017.

It's a 2006 Ferrari F430 Spider which has a 4,308cc F136 E four-cam V8 engine and was in production from 2004 to 2009.

1969 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTV

This car took part in the HSCC Historic Roadsports Championship Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

It's Matthew Newman's 1969 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTV which has a 1,750cc 4-cylinder inline twin-cam engine, and the car was produced from 1967 to 1977.

1934 MG K3

This car competed in the Pre-War MGs race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's a 1934 MG K3, and the programme of the event shows that it was entered by Peter Gregory and driven in the race by Brandon Smith-Hilliard. It looks remarkably like the car sold by Sotheby's at an auction in 2013 for €408,800, but the auction description says that was a 1933 car with an engine of 1,086cc whereas the programme at the Donington Park meeting says that this is a 1934 vehicle and the capacity of the engine is 1,286cc. Peter Gregory apparently produced a number of MG K3 replicas so this is possibly another of his efforts with a larger engine.

1976 Surtees TS19

This car competed in the Grand Prix Masters F1 Cars 1966-1985 race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's Robert Austin's 1976 Surtees TS19 with which Team Surtees competed in F1 racing in 1976, 1977 and 1978. The car was designed by John Surtees and Ken Sears and had a 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFV engine. The car did not fare well in any of those seasons, the highest points scorers being Alan Jones in 1976 with 7 points, Vittorio Brambilla in 1977 with 8 points, and Vittorio Brambilla again in 1978 with a solitary point. This website shows the record of each of the TS19s in those years, but I've not been able to ascertain the chassis number of Robert Austin's car - the most likely one is TS19/02. The programme of the event has this to say about Robert Austin:

'The real darkhorse is another former F3 racer in the form of Rob Austin and his ex-Alan Jones Surtees TS19. Austin has yet to have a proper run in the car but showed mighty pace in qualifying at Brands when he planted the car on pole. Unlike Coombs, Austin has his F3 experience from the last decade.'

1914 Hupmobile Model 32 Tourer

I photographed this car at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophy race meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's a 1914 Hupmobile Model 32 Tourer, and looks as if it should be one of the entrants in the Cheshire Life Concours D'Elegance competition, but it isn't listed as such in the programme of the event. The Hupp Motor Company was founded in Detroit in 1909 by Bobby Hupp and Charles Hastings and began production with the Hupp 20 which continued until 1913. In 1912 the Hupp 32 (also known as the Model H) was introduced which, according to the DVLA record for this car, has an engine capacity of 3,200cc (and the DVLA record says that the vehicle is currently still being taxed). There is a Hupmobile Club for owners and enthusiasts.

1931 Maserati Tipo 26M

This car was part of a display of Maserati cars in the Paddock Suite at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 where Maserati was the featured marque.

It's a 1931 Maserati Tipo 26M which was at that time owned by Julian Majzub. The 26M has a supercharged 8-cylinder inline 2,495cc engine and 15 of the cars were produced between 1930 and 1932. This car is chassis #2512 and was originally owned by Umberto Klinger of Ferrera. The car was acquired by John Appleton in 1932, and he shortened the chassis and replaced the Maserati engine with that from a Riley Nine as he considered the car to be under-powered. The two-seater body was replaced in 1935 by a single-seater and the car became known as the Appleton Special. It competed in this guise, with several changes along the way, until the late 1990s when the then owner Julian Majzub restored the car back to something like its original condition.

This excellent website will tell you most things you want to know about Maseratis.

1938 ERF C15

This was one of the entrants in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1996.

It's a 1938 ERF C15, and the programme of the event gave this information about it, although showing the date of the vehicle as 1937:

ERF C15, 1937                                                                                                                             ELT 538
Entered by         R.F. Reyner, Bramhall, Cheshire
The original chassis had a van body for carrying meat from London Docks. New Cab & Body.

More recent photographs, and the DVLA record, show it to now have a blue body.

Friday's Ferrari

This car was in the Ferrari Owners Club's area at the Historic Tribute meeting at Silverstone in June 2004.

It's a Ferrari Enzo, also known as a Ferrari F60, a car that was produced by Ferrari between 2002 and 2004. It was named after Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company, and has the 5,999cc V12 Tipo F140 engine.

Three Brabhams

I took this photograph at Foulstons chicane on the first lap of the HSCC Classic Racing Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2004.

Leading is Steve Worrad in his 1970 Brabham BT30 followed by the 1965 Brabham BT16 of Matthew Watts and the 1970 BT28 of Edwin Jowsey. The Brabham BT30 was designed to compete in Formula 2 races when the engine was limited to 1,600cc, and Steve Worrad's car is chassis #BT30/25, originally raced by Rolf Stommelen. The BT16 was built for the earlier Formula 2 series when the capacity limit was 1,000cc, though the programme of this event shows Matthew Watts' car to have a capacity of 1,594cc. The Brabham BT28 was designed for Formula 3 racing when it had a 1,000cc limit, but the programme shows the engine of Edwin Jowsey's car to be 1,600cc. This car is possibly chassis #BT28/04. This website lists all the different types of Brabham racing cars. The programme has this to say about the race:

'Another over-flowing grid of 1960s single-seaters will line up for round seven of the HSCC Classic Racing Cars Championship. Cars from Formula 3, Formula 2, Formula Junior and even Formula Ford are all in the field, which should be headed by the 1600cc F2 Brabhams of Edwin Jowsey and Steven Worrad. 

Young Jowsey has had his share of bad luck this season in the BT28, but if that is behind him he will be very tough to beat. Worrad, meanwhile, has a BT30 and will surely take the fight to Jowsey along with championship points leader Matthew Watts (BT16), Jim Gathercole (BT30) and John Moulds (BT23).'

1926 NSU 6/60

This is one of several vehicles, including two Auto Union Grand Prix cars, that Audi took to the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

It's a 1926 NSU 6/60 that was a successful competitor in the 1½ litre class of racing in the 1920s. It has a 6-cylinder inline 1,482cc supercharged engine, and its best result was when it took the first four places in the up to 1½ litre class at the 1926 German Grand Prix at the Avus circuit. Georg Klöbe finished in fifth place overall with Jakob Scholl in seventh place, Franz Islinger eighth, and Josef Müller in tenth place. This is the only one of those cars that has survived, and this photograph was taken on the stretch between the Old Hairpin and McLean's Corner.

On 6 February 2017 I showed two more photographs of the car that I took that day.

1976 Mercury Cougar XR-7

This car was displayed by the American Auto Club North West at the Footman James Classic Car Show Manchester at EventCity in September 2018.

It's a third generation 1976 Mercury Cougar XR-7 with the 351 cu in (5.8 litre) V8 engine, the XR-7 having more luxury features than the standard Cougar. 400 cu in and 460 cu in models were also available.

1969 Maserati MIstral

I photographed this car at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It was in a part of the parking area set aside for Maserati owners and is a 1969 Maserati Mistral. The Mistral was a replacement for the 3500GT and was the first of a series of Maseratis named after famous winds, the Mistral being a cold northerly wind of southern France. The Mistral was in production from 1964 to 1969 and the original 6-cylinder inline engine of 3,485cc was increased first to 3,694cc then to the 4,014cc of the car pictured above, 454 examples of which were built. The 2-seater fastback body was designed by Pietro Frua.

1923 Singer 10

This car took part in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in May 1987, and is pictured here in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Run.

It's the 1923 Singer 10 of Clive Cooper and has a 1,097cc 4-cylinder inline sidevalve engine, and a note in the programme of the event said this about the car:

32      1923 Singer

           Reg: ND 1891  4 cylinder 9.7 hp

           (Clive T. Cooper, Cheadle Hulme)

This Manchester registered car would appear to

have remained in the area all its life. A product

of the takeover by Singer of the Coventry

Premier Motor Co., it represented an entry into

the popular market, being a less costly version

of the Edwardian 10 hp model. The engine is

overhead valve, actuated by exposed push-

rods. It runs on beaded-edge tyres and has rear

brakes only.

There's a Singer Owners' Club for owners of the car and for Singer enthusiasts.

1977 Hesketh 308E

This car took part in the 'Silverstone International Trophy for Pre 1978 Grand Prix Cars' race at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.

It's the 1977 Hesketh 308E of Philip Walker, driven in the race by Andrew Wolfe, and is chassis 308E/1. Designed by Frank Dernie and Nigel Stroud it has a 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth engine and was driven in the 1977 season by Rupert Keegan, whose best result was seventh place in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph during the traditional 'Demonstration of Italian Racing Cars' at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's Mike Littlewood driving John Fenning's 1980 Ferrari 312 T5, chassis 048 at McLean's Corner. The car has a 2,992cc flat 12 engine and was driven by Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve in the 1980 season, but the results were very poor, Jody Scheckter winning only 2 points in the World Drivers' Championship and finishing in 19th place, and Gilles Villeneuve finishing in 14th place with 6 points.

Cooper Bristol T25

This car took part in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's the 1954 Cooper Bristol T25 of Eddie McGuire, originally built for Sid Greene's Gilbey Engineering concern where it was given the engine from a Maserati A6GCS that the team had been racing, but had become uncompetitive. It was driven by Alan Brown and Roy Salvadori in the 1955 season and then sold to Horace Gould minus the Maserati engine. Horace Gould installed a 1,971cc Bristol engine and took the car to New Zealand, where it remained until the mid-1980s. It appears to have been given a Maserati engine again since this Donington Park event according to these photographs from the Padua Auto e Moto d'Epoca in 2017 that show the car with a Maserati badge and grille (which seems to be from a Maserati A6GCS). The Maserati engine has a number 3033 stamped on it which, if it's the engine serial number, should relate to a 1939 Maserati 8CTF unit of 2,991cc that was supplied to American Mike Boyle in 1939 - but that was an 8-cylinder engine, and the one here has only six cylinders.

McLaren and Lamborghini

Here are some photographs of a couple of cars I saw on the Manchester United car park at Old Trafford in early December 2019.

This is a 2018 McLaren 570S Coupe

It's a rear-mid engine car and is powered by a 3,996cc twin-turbocharged V8 engine

With the late afternoon sunshine fading I found this 2019 Lamborghini Urus SUV

This car also has a 3,996cc twin-turbocharged V8 engine, but it's at the front of the vehicle