Lotus Eleven Stanguellini

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the British Empire Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in April 1957.

It's the Ecurie White Rose team's Lotus Eleven Le Mans of Alex McMillan which had a 1,096cc Stanguellini engine (the programme of the event says that it's a 'Lotus-Stranguellini'!). There were three heats based on engine sizes and he finished in 22nd place in the overall standings.

 

1957 Aston Martin DBR1

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at Oulton Park at the British Empire Trophy meeting in April 1957.

It's the 1957 Aston Martin DBR1 with which Roy Salvadori finished in second place to Archie Scott Brown's Lister Jaguar. The DBR1 was developed by Aston Martin in an attempt to win the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, which they finally did in 1959. This car has the 6-cylinder inline 2,493cc engine to comply with the Le Mans then limit of 2½ litres, but it was later given a 2,992cc engine when the limit was raised to 3 litres.

1957 Lister Jaguar

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the 1957 British Empire Trophy meeting.

It's Archie Scott Brown's 1957 Lister Jaguar, the first Jaguar engined Lister, which was built before the FIA's Appendix C regulations required it to have headlights. Unlike the previous years' meetings which were run in 3 heats according to engine size with a handicap final the 1957 event just had three races based on engine size with the winner of the Trophy being the car that won its race in the shortest time. The 'Up to 1,200cc' race was won by Graham Hill in a Lotus Eleven while the '1,200cc to 2,000cc' race was won by Ron Flockhart, also in a Lotus Eleven but with a larger engine. The 'Over 2,000cc' race was won by Archie Scott Brown in this car and (naturally) he did it in the quickest time to win the Trophy. I came across a quote saying that drivers who raced against him were unanimous in saying that “… Archie spends less time travelling with all wheels pointing straight ahead than any other driver”.

Carlos Menditéguy

This slightly blurred photograph shows Argentinian racing driver Carlos Menditéguy in the paddock at Aintree on practice day for the British Grand Prix in July 1957.

Carlos Menditéguy drove a Maserati 250F for the Maserati team in this race and qualified in ninth place on the grid, but retired after 35 laps. He took part in 10 Formula 1 World Championship races between 1953 and 1960, but five of these were in the Argentinian Grand Prix and his best result in those 10 races was third place in the 1957 Argentinian Grand Prix.

1957 BRM P25

I took this photograph in the paddock at Aintree during practice for the British Grand Prix in July 1957.

It's the 1957 BRM P25 that was driven in the race by Les Leston who qualified in twelfth place on the grid, but retired with an engine failure after 44 laps of the 90 laps race. The BRM P25 was said to be the fastest of the 1954-1960 Formula 1 era, partly due to the oversquare (102.87 mm bore x 74.93 mm stroke) 2,491cc engine allowing for larger valves to be fitted. The car was plagued with reliability problems, however, and the only Grand Prix win was Jo Bonnier's victory in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix.

Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn

I took this rather fuzzy photograph with a Kodak Brownie 127 camera in the paddock during practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1957.

It's Stirling Moss who was part of the Vanwall team, and Mike Hawthorn who drove a Ferrari 801 for the Scuderia Ferrari team. Stirling Moss qualified his Vanwall in pole position on the grid with team mate Tony Brooks also on the front row, the two Vanwalls sandwiching Jean Behra's Maserati 250F. Mike Hawthorn was on the second row in fifth place with the Ferrari 801, which was the final evolution of the D50 cars that Ferrari had inherited from Lancia towards the end of the 1955 season. Eventual World Drivers' Championship winner (for the fourth consecutive season) Juan Fangio was next to Mike Hawthorn in fourth position. Stirling Moss led the 90 lap race in the early stages, pulling away from Jean Behra for about 20 laps, but his car then developed a misfire and after two quick pit stops to try to rectify the problem Tony Brooks, having a painful drive following an accident at Le Mans, was flagged into the pits for Stirling Moss to take over his car, then in fifth place, but dropping to ninth after the change-over. Stirling Moss began to catch the cars in front of him, getting up to fourth place behind Jean Behra, Mike Hawthorn and Stewart Lewis-Evans in the third Vanwall by lap 69 when everything suddenly changed. Coming down the Railway Straight towards the Melling Crossing the clutch in Jean Behra's Maserati exploded leaving him to roll round to the pits to retire. As Mike Hawthorn came to pass the stricken Maserati one of his tyres punctured on the debris left by the broken clutch and he had to slow down to stop at the pits for a wheel change. Stuart Lewis-Evans quickly caught and passed the Ferrari, but almost immediately was passed by Stirling Moss to take the lead in the race. So at the end of the lap which he had started in fourth place with a hope of maybe catching the leader by the end of the race Stirling Moss crossed the line in the lead, which he held to the end of the race. Luigi Musso in a Ferrari 801 was second and Mike Hawthorn finished in third place - all the other finishers had been lapped by those three cars.

1956 Jaguar D-Type

I took this photograph in the paddock at Aintree during practice at the British Grand Prix meeting in July 1957.

It's the 1956 Jaguar D-Type of Duncan Hamilton, chassis XKD 601, with which he finished in third place in the sports car race at this meeting behind the Lister Jaguar of Archie Scott-Brown and the Aston Martin DBR1 of Roy Salvadori. It has the 6-cylinder 3,442cc XK6 engine and was originally a works car, although its first race was in the white and blue colours of Briggs Cunningham at the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Mike Hawthorn and Desmond Titterington, but retired with brake problems with about 1½ hours of the race left. At the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometre race that year with the same two drivers the car again failed to finish, this time with a broken drive shaft, but at the Reims 12 Hour race Paul Frère shared the driving with Mike Hawthorn and the car finished in second place to the Jaguar D-Type of Duncan Hamilton and Ivor Bueb. The third car of the Jaguar team was in third place and fourth place went to an Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type. By 1957 the car had been acquired by Duncan Hamilton who finished in sixth place with Masten Gregory at that year's Le Mans 24 Hour race - the first four cars in that race were D-Type Jaguars with a Ferrari 315 S in fifth place.

Tony Brooks

I took this photograph on practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1957.

On the left is Tony Brooks who shared the winning drive in the Grand Prix with Stirling Moss in a Vanwall. Tony Brooks, who was barely fit enough to take part in the race having injured himself in a crash at Le Mans only 4 weeks previously, took third place on the grid with team mate Stirling Moss in pole position. Moss led the race from the start with Behra's Maserati 250F second and Brooks third, but Moss's car suffered a misfire and Brooks was called into the pits to swap cars with Moss. Stirling Moss went on to win the race, due in no small part to the clutch on Behra's car exploding when he looked certain to win, and Mike Hawthorn, then in second place, suffered a puncture when he ran over bits of the debris. Tony Brooks in Moss's car eventually suffered an engine failure and he didn't finish the race.

The person to whom Tony Brooks is talking in this photograph is Alf Francis, who was mechanic to Stirling Moss in the early 1950s, and in 1957 was with Rob Walker's team whose Cooper Climax T43 was driven in this race by Jack Brabham. Tony Brooks also drove for Rob Walker in some F2 races and non-championship F1 races that season.

Maserati 250F

This is a photograph taken on practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1957.

It's the Maserati 250F (#2527) driven in the race by Harry Schell, who qualified in seventh place on the grid but retired on lap 39 with a broken water pump. I showed a photograph on 3 May 2016 of how this car looked in July 2000.

Friday's Ferrari

On 30 January 2015 I showed a photograph taken during practice of three of the Ferrari team cars that took part in the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree, and here's another photograph of one of the Ferrari 801s taken that day.

It doesn't appear to have a  race number and it's probably the team's practice car. Four Ferraris took part in the race driven by Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Luigi Musso and Maurice Trintignant.

Juan Manuel Fangio

This is another of the old black-and-white Kodak Brownie 127 photographs, this time taken at the Friday practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1957. You can see in the background the old grandstands of the Aintree Racecourse which lay alongside the finishing straight and which have now, I understand, been demolished and replaced.

This is the then World Champion and soon-to be Champion again, Juan Manuel Fangio in the paddock on his way to join the Maserati team and prepare for the day's practice in his 250F. He didn't have much luck in the race though - running low down in the order until he retired halfway through the race with engine problems.

The photograph shows how easy it was in those days to approach the drivers who would happily pose for photographs and sign autographs.

Friday's Ferrari

I've recently been able to scan into my laptop some of the photographs that my brother and I took at Oulton Park and Aintree, and one meeting at Silverstone, between 1955 and 1962. They were mostly taken on Kodak Brownie 127 cameras but even so the quality of some of them is surprisingly good - others not so much. Here's one of the photographs we took at practice for the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

It shows three of the four Ferrari 801 cars that took part in the race. The middle car, number 14 (chassis no. 0010), was the car driven by Luigi Musso and the car on the left looks to have number 16 (chassis no. 0006), which was Maurice Trintignant's car, taken over by Peter Collins when his car failed half-way through the race. The other two cars were number 10 (chassis no. 0009), driven by Mike Hawthorn, and number 12 (chassis no. 0008) which was Peter Collins' original car.

During the race Stirling Moss in a Vanwall had a comfortable lead part way through the race, but stopped to change cars with Tony Brooks, then in ninth place, because of a persistent misfire. This allowed Jean Behra in a Maserati 250F to take the lead with Mike Hawthorn in the Ferrari in second place. Stirling Moss got up to third place, but still some way behind, when Jean Behra's clutch and flywheel exploded. Mike Hawthorn had the misfortune to run over the debris sustaining a puncture leaving Stirling Moss in the lead which he maintained to the finish - the first win by a British car in a World Championship race. Luigi Musso finished in second place with Mike Hawthorn recovering after his pit stop to finish third and the Maurice Trintignant/Peter Collins Ferrari was fourth. 

The Ferrari 801 was the final development of the Lancia D50 cars handed over to Ferrari at the end of the 1955 season on the demise of Scuderia Lancia. The cars competed in the 1956 season with minor modifications as Lancia-Ferrari D50s but were modified to such an extent for the 1957 season that they were given a new identity as Ferrari 801s.

Sadler Sports Cars

The Sadler was a sports car designed and built by Canadian born Bill Sadler in the 1950s. This is the Sadler MkIII of Julian Majzub pictured in the paddock at Oulton Park after winning the Hawthorn International Trophy race at the Hawthorn Memorial Trophies race meeting organised by the VSCC at Oulton Park in June 2008.

And here is Julian Majzub pictured at Britten's Chicane during his victorious drive.

I remember what was probably the first occasion on which a Sadler participated in a race at Oulton Park, in the late 1950s I think, although my memory doesn't tell me which meeting it was or the date. I seem to recall that it was a club meeting, either the Mid-Cheshire Motor Racing Club or the Lancashire and Cheshire Car Club, and was probably in 1957. I took the grainy photograph below with my trusty Brownie 127 camera.

Judging by the information here it appears to be the original Sadler MkI, probably after the original Triumph TR2 engine had been replaced with a Chevrolet V8 engine.