1927 Amilcar

This was one of the cars entered in the Concours d’Elegance at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It’s a 1927 Amilcar and the only information about it in the programme of the event was that it was entered for the Concours by H.C.Balfour and had a 1,089 cc engine.

Aston Martin Le Mans

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in 1961.

I don't appear to have made a note about it at the time, but it appears to be an Aston Martin Le Mans from the early 1930s, several of which competed at this meeting. That was a 1½ litre car, a successor to the Aston Martin International and named the 'Le Mans' after the International's success at the Le Mans 24 Hour race. The registration number AML 230 now belongs to a 1994 Porsche.

1924 Bugatti T35B

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

As usual with these older photographs any note I made about it has long ago disappeared but it's a Bugatti, and although you can't read the number on the tail of the car the only Bugatti listed in the programme that it seems to match is the number 52 on John Horton's 1924 Bugatti T35B. The programme says that it's a 2 litre car which would have the 8-cylinder inline 1,992cc engine.

1929 Bentley Speed Six

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's a 1929 Bentley Speed Six with a 6-cylinder inline 6½ litre engine. 544 of these vehicles were produced between 1926 and 1930 and this one is chassis number BA2584, engine number BA2581 and is fitted with four-seated touring body by Hunt.

1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's a 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza and has an 8-cylinder inline 2,336cc engine. The registration number is FYE 7, with a chassis  number 2211130  which was originally owned and raced by the Hon. Brian Lewis who later became Lord Essendon. At the time of this race meeting it seems to have been owned by the Hon. Patrick Lindsay who drove his ERA R5B 'Remus' in the Richard Seaman Historic Memoria Trophy race that day. Between the races at the meeting was a parade by some 20 Pre-War drivers including such names as John Bolster, Louis Chiron, S.C.H. Davis, George Eyston and Lord Essendon 'driving cars with which they have been associated'. I don't specifically remember it, but presumably Lord Essendon drove his old Alfa Romeo during this parade.

1931 Alfa Romeo 6C-1750 GS Zagato

This car competed in two handicap races at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's Richard Pilkington's 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C-1750 GS Zagato which has a supercharged 6-cylinder inline 1,752cc engine. This model was produced from 1929 to 1933 and was an extremely successful car in that period, winning every major race for which it was entered in 1929.

1936 ERA R5B

This car competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's the 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus' of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, but it's actually a darker blue than appears in the photograph which is from an old colour transparency. The car has the 1,488cc supercharged version of the 6-cylinder ERA engine and it was originally one of the cars in the White Mouse Stable of Siam's Prince Chula and driven by his cousin, Prince Birabongse, known simply as 'Bira'.

1934 ERA R1A

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting in June 1961.

It's the 1934 ERA R1A, the first ERA to be built,  with the 6-cylinder inline 1,488cc supercharged engine derived from the Riley 9 engine. The car was driven in the race by A G (Sandy) Murray.

1926 Bentley 3 litre

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's a 1926 Bentley 3 litre which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,996cc engine 1622 of which were produced between 1921 and 1929. Behind the wheel of the car is SCH 'Sammy' Davis who was one of the 'Bentley Boys' of the late 1920s and early 1930s when the Le Mans 24 Hour race was won for four consecutive years from 1927 to 1930. Sammy Davis drove the winning car in 1927 with Dr Dudley Benjafield. He was also President of the Vintage Sports Car Club in 1936 and 1937. I feel that I should know the gentleman in the passenger seat, but the name escapes me.

1961 BRM P57

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Aintree 200 meeting in April 1961.

It's the 1961 BRM P57 that was driven to third place in the race by Graham Hill. 1961 was the first year of the 1½ litre Formula that replaced the 2½ litre limit that had lasted from 1954 to 1960. BRM, like the other British teams had started preparations for the new Formula too late and had been caught on the back foot by the Ferrari team who had got their new Ferrari 156 with its 1½ litre V8 engine up and running by the first race of the season at Monaco. Both BRM and Coventry Climax had new V8 engines on the drawing board but the Coventry Climax engine wasn't ready till the second half of the 1961 season, and the BRM not until 1962. In 1961 the BRM team used a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc Coventry Climax FPF engine.

1961 Lotus 18/21

This is a photograph I took during practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1961.

It's the UDT Laystall Racing Team's 1961 Lotus 18/21 that was driven in the race by Lucien Bianchi and is chassis #917. The Lotus 18/21 was a development of the Lotus 18 with which many parts were interchangeable, and had a more streamlined body compared to the rather angular Lotus 18. The car had a 1,500cc 4-cylinder inline Coventry Climax FPF engine, and Lucien Bianchi qualified in 30th and last position on the grid, retiring after 45 laps of the 75 lap race with a broken gearbox.

1961 Lotus 18

This was one of the competitors in the Aintree 200 race at the Liverpool circuit in April 1961.

It's the 1961 Lotus 18, one of three cars entered in the race by Team Lotus, and was driven by Trevor Taylor. The Lotus 18 was originally built in 1960 to compete in Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula Junior races and was campaigned by the Lotus team in the 1960 Grand Prix season with a 2,467cc (later 2,497cc) Coventry Climax FPF 4-cylinder inline engine. In 1961 the regulations were changed limiting engine capacity to 1½ litres, and while Team Lotus mostly used the Lotus 21 for World Championship races the Lotus 18 was still put to use in some non-Championship races. The engine used in 1961 was the 1,500cc version of the Coventry Climax FPF engine. Trevor Taylor qualified in 14th position on the grid for the Aintree 200 race, but retired after 41 laps of the 50 lap race. The other two Team Lotus cars finished in 9th and 10th places respectively in the hands of Jim Clark and Innes Ireland.

Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

This was one of the competitors in the BRDC '60s GT Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

2 VEV is one of four special lightweight versions of the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato and is one of two such cars produced for John Ogier's Essex Racing team for the 1961 season. It had the straight-6 twin overhead cam 3,670cc engine and is chassis DB4GT/183/R, and its first race, together with the other Essex Racing Team car was the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hour Race where it was driven by Australians Lex Davison and Bib Stilwell. Both cars retired early in the race suffering from overheating because the cylinder heads had not been correctly tightened after engine rebuilds. It was subsequently driven to fourth place (stablemate 1 VEV finishing in third place) in the 1961 RAC Tourist Trophy Race at Goodwood by Jim Clark. The car was driven at this Silverstone meeting by Nick Cussons and the programme of the event says that its engine capacity was 3,761cc.

This is a photograph I took 31 years previously at the 1961 British Grand Prix meeting where the car had its second outing for the Essex Racing Team in the supporting GT race. It was driven by Lex Davison, who won the race ahead of the Jaguar E-Type of Jack Sears.

André Pilette

This photograph was taken in the paddock at Aintree during practice for the Aintree 200 race in April 1961.

It's the Belgian racing driver André Pilette who competed sporadically in Grand Prix races between 1951 and 1964 for three Belgian racing teams, for Équipe Gordini, and a single race for Scuderia Ferrari in 1956 when he drove a Lancia-Ferrari D50 in the Belgian Grand Prix, continuing Ferrari's tradition of fielding a car in that race painted in Belgium's national racing colours and driven by a Belgian driver. In the Aintree 200 race he drove an Écurie Nationale Belge Emeryson Maserati and finished in 16th place.

Cooper T55

I took this photograph in the paddock during practice for the Aintree 200 race at the Aintree circuit in April 1961.

It's the Cooper T55, chassis F1/10/61, of Jack Brabham in which he qualified in second position on the grid to Graham Hill in a BRM P57. The T55 was making its debut in this race, which Jack Brabham won followed by his team-mate Bruce McLaren in another T55 with Graham Hill in third place. The Cooper T55 was powered by the Coventry Climax 1½ litre 4-cylinder FPF engines which proved no match for the 1½ litre V6 engines of the Ferrari 156 in the 1961 World Championship races. This website shows the full racing history of F1/10/61.

Cooper T53

This is a photograph I took at Aintree on the practice day for the Aintree 200 race in April 1961.

It's the 1961 1½ litre Climax-engined Cooper T53, chassis #F1-3-61 entered by the Camoradi team and driven by Masten Gregory who started in 26th place on the grid (not having posted a practice time) but ended the race in 5th place. The Camoradi team was founded by American Lloyd Casner (CAsner MOtor RAcing DIvision) and is probably better known for its efforts in sports car racing, particularly with the Maserati T61 with which Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney won the 1960 Nürburgring 1,000 km race.

On 31 March 2016 I showed a photograph of another Cooper T53 that took part in this race, the Rob Walker car driven by Stirling Moss (chassis #F1-7-61) which only lasted for two laps.

Lotus 19

I took these photographs at Aintree on practice day for the Aintree 200 meeting in April 1961.

It's a 1960 Lotus 19, called the Monte Carlo as a nod to its perceived close rival the Cooper T49 Monaco. The car was one of a pair entered for the sports car race at this meeting by the UDT Laystall Racing team, to be driven by Stirling Moss and Henry Taylor, and this one is Henry Taylor's car. Both cars were powered by the 2½ litre Coventry Climax FPF engine.

The UDT Laystall team was originally formed as the British Racing Partnership in 1957 by Stirling Moss's father Alfred and his former manager Ken Gregory to run cars for Stirling Moss, outside his other racing commitments, and other up-and-coming drivers. In a sponsorship deal the team was renamed Yeoman Credit Racing for the 1960 season and then UDT Laystall Racing for the next two seasons.

Friday's Ferrari

Here's another photograph taken with my Kodak Brownie 127 camera on practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1961.

It's the Ferrari 156 driven into second place in the race by Phil Hill, and alongside you can see the number 6 of Richie Ginther's car that finished in third place. Another of the cars is behind Phil Hill's and to the left of that the fourth car is still covered to keep out the Liverpool weather. The rope across the centre of the photograph is to stop the spectators getting too close to the cars when the mechanics are working on them. On 28 February 2014 I showed photographs of this car and Giancarlo Baghetti's.

BRM P48/57

Here's a photograph taken in the paddock at Aintree during practice for the 1961 British Grand Prix.

It's Graham Hill's BRM P48/57, the interim car, based on the 1960 P48 and fitted with a 4-cylinder 1½ litre Climax FPF engine that the team used until the P57 with the BRM V8 engine was ready. Graham Hill qualified in eleventh place on the grid but retired after 43 laps with an engine failure.

Cooper T53

This is a photograph taken on practice day for the Aintree 200 race in April 1961.

It's the Cooper-Climax T53 (chassis #F1-7-61) of Rob Walker, driven (but only briefly) in the race by Stirling Moss. He had bearing troubles in practice, only qualifying in 23rd place on the grid, and his race only lasted till the second lap when the bearings eventually caused him to retire.