1939 Mercedes Benz W154

This is a photograph that I took at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

It's a 1939 Mercedes Benz W154 from the Mercedes Benz museum that had been taken to the event to complete a number of demonstration runs in the hands of Tony Dron – here seen getting out of the car after completing one of those runs.

 

The rules governing the running of the European Championship races for 1938 had been changed from a 750kg weight limit with no restriction on engine sizes to a maximum engine capacity of 4½ litres unsupercharged or 3 litres with a supercharger. The W154 was designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut based on the chassis of the previous year's W125 and used the 2,962cc supercharged V12 M154 engine. Three of the four European Championship races that year were won by three Mercedes Benz drivers, Manfred von Brauchitsch, Richard Seaman and Rudolf Caracciola, with Tazio Nuvolari winning the final race in his Auto Union D-Type. For the 1939 season the engine was modified to use a two-stage supercharger and designated as an M163 - for this reason the 1939 car is sometimes erroneously referred to as a Mercedes Benz W163. The body was also given a sleeker, less bulbous look. Mercedes Benz again won three of the four European Championship races, Hermann Lang winning two and Rudolf Caracciola one. The other race was again won by an Auto Union D-Type, this time driven by Hermann Müller.

1935 Talbot 95/105 Sports Special

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It’s Norman Pemberton’s 1935 Talbot 95/105 Sports Special and the only information about it in the programme of the event was that it had a 2,969cc engine.

Lola Mk1

This is a photograph that I took at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008. It’s a Lola Mk1 but is not shown in the programme of the event nor in the results listing, and the number 14 car in the Sports Racing Cars race is the Piper of Anthony Goddard.

The Lola Mk1 was designed by Eric Broadley in 1958 and was usually powered by a 4-cylinder inline 1,098cc Coventry Climax engine. Around 40 of the cars were built and a variety of engines were used.

1953 Riley RME

This is a photograph that I took in one of the car parks at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's a 1953 Riley RME, 3,446 of which were produced between 1952 and 1955 and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc engine. 

1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA

This is a photograph that I took at Britten’s chicane during the Under 2 Litres Touring Car race at the Gold Cup Meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

It's the 1965 Scuderia del Portello Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA driven in the 1 hour long race by Jason Wright. The Giulia was produced from 1962 to 1978 with a 4-cylinder inline engine of either 1.3 litres or 1.6 litres and the programme of the event says that this car has the 1.6 litre engine. The car behind looks like Roz Shaw and Tom Sheppard’s Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT.

1933/36 Aston Martin Le Mans

This is a photograph that I took at the Knickerbrook chicane during a scratch race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It’s the 1933/36 Aston Martin Le Mans of Tony Armstrong which should have a 4-cylinder inline 1,493cc engine, but the programme of the event says that its capacity is 1,850cc and it is supercharged. There’s no other mention of the car in the programme but I’ve found several online references to it, though none of them give any information about the engine. The car following it appears to be the 1926 Bugatti Type 35B of Mike Preston.

1958 Lister Monza Jaguar

This car took part in the Flockhart Trophy Race at Donington Park at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting in June 2008.

It's the 1958 Lister MonzaJaguar of Rod Jolley with a 6-cylinder inline 3,781cc Jaguar engine that was built for Ecurie Ecosse to run in the Race of Two Worlds at Monza. The Race of Two Worlds was conceived as an annual exhibition event to be run on the banked oval at Monza and contested by two teams of cars from the USA (USAC cars as in the Indianapolis 500 race) and from Europe (F1 World Championship cars). Because of safety concerns and costs (and a lack of enthusiasm amongst the European F1 teams) the event only lasted for two years, 1957 and 1958, being won by the American cars on both occasions. Ecurie Ecosse entered a team of three Jaguar D-types in the 1957 race, and in 1958 two Jaguar D-types and this single seat Lister Jaguar built especially for the race and consequently known as the Lister Jaguar Monzanapolis. The building was completed in the paddock at Monza leaving insufficient time to paint the aluminium body of the car before the race, but it was later painted Ecurie Ecosse blue. It was subsequently  returned to the original unpainted finish.

1958 Lister Jaguar

This is a photograph that I took at Lodge Corner during the Guards Trophy GTSR Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

It's Bob Gilbert in his 1958 Lister Jaguar which has the 6-cylinder inline 3,781cc Jaguar XK6 engine. The car was actually built with genuine Lister Jaguar parts in the early 1990s for the Yoshiyuki Hayashi Collection.

1959 Cooper Monaco

This is a photograph that I took at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's the 1959 Cooper T49 Monaco of Paul Wolley and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,990cc Coventry Climax engine. The name 'Monaco' was given to the car to mark Maurice Trintignant's win in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix in a Cooper Climax T45. It was the successor to the smaller centre-seat Cooper T39 'Bobtail' that the company had produced since 1954.

1934 Wolseley Hornet Special

This car competed in a scratch race and a handicap race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It’s Barry Baxter’s 1934 Wolseley Hornet Special, a version of the Wolseley Hornet Six that was produced from 1932 to 1935. The Wolseley Hornet Special had a 6-cylinder inline engine, originally of 1,271cc with later cars being given the 1,604cc engine of the Wolseley Fourteen. The programme of the event says that Barry Baxter's car has a supercharged 1,604cc engine. There's a Wolseley Hornet Special Club for owners of these cars.

1953 Cooper Bristol

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

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol MkII of Ed Cottam which has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.

1938 AC 16/80 Competition Sports

This is a photograph I took at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's a 1938 AC 16/80 Competition Sports, chassis L635, and has a six-cylinder inline 1,991cc engine. It is one of only 44 Competition Sports models produced and the DVLA record says that it has been untaxed since May 2020.

1931 Bugatti T51

I took this photograph at Britten's chicane during the Brooklands and Goddard Trophies race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's Stephen Shoosmith in his 1931 Bugatti Type 51 which has a supercharged 2,262cc twin cam straight-8 engine. It has the same chassis and body as the Type 35, but with a twin cam instead of a single cam engine.

1970 Brabham BT28

I took this photograph at Britten's chicane during the HSCCA/FJHRA Historic Formula Junior Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

Geoffroy Rivet in his 1970 Brabham BT28 is leading the1962 Cooper T59 of Sam Wilson and François Derossi's 1970 Chevron B17 through the the cloud of dust that had been put on an an earlier oil spill.

1926/30 Hispano Delage

This car competed in the Boulogne Trophy race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's the 1926/30 Hispano Delage 500CV of Anthony Howat, a comparatively recent construction using the chassis of a 1926 Delage and a 500hp 1930 V12 Hispano Aero engine of 27 litres.

1928 Morgan Super Aero

This is a photograph I took at Britten's chicane during a Five Lap Handicap Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's Gary Caroline in his 1928 Morgan Super Aero 3-wheeler with a 1,260cc V-twin JAP engine and he’s following Noel Runnels-Moss in a 1921/24 Vauxhall 30-98 Velox. There's a Morgan Three Wheeler Club especially for the owners of these cars.

1955 Swallow Doretti

This is a photograph that I took just outside the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's a 1955 Swallow Doretti and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,991cc Triumph engine. The Swallow Doretti was built by the Swallow Coachbuilding Co (then owned by the Tube Investments Group) between 1954 and 1955 using mechanicals from the Triumph TR2. Production of the car stopped after only 10 months, apparently because Jaguar, a major customer of the TI Group, were so worried about the effect on sales of their XK120 that they threatened to look elsewhere for a supplier of their components if manufacture of the Swallow Doretti continued. The DVLA record says that VVT497 currently has a SORN.

Historic Formula 2

This is a photograph that I took at Brittens chicane during the Historic Formula 2 Trophy Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

Leading is the 1971 March 712 of Paul Bason followed by the 1971 Lola T240 of Tim Barrington. The 1971 Formula 2 cars were limited to 1.6 litres and most cars used the Ford Cosworth FVA engine. The European Formula 2 Championship that year was won by Ronnie Peterson in a March712.

VSCC at Oulton Park

I took this photograph at Britten's chicane during a handicap race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

The leading silver car is the 1937 Riley 12/4 of Mike Gilbert and the green car behind it is the 1932 Frazer Nash TT Replica of Joshua Beebee. On the right is the Riley Kestrel 12/4 Special of Richard Iliffe and the following car is the 1927 Invicta High Chassis of Edward Harris.

1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

This was one of the competitors in the HSCC Historic Road Sports Championship race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2008.

It's the 1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ (or Sprint Zagato) of James Wiseman which was one of 217 produced between 1959 and 1962 and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,290cc engine.