1952 Connaught A-Type

This car took part in a 10 lap race for Pre-1961 Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's the 1952 Connaught A-Type of Gerry Porter which has a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. It is chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. It was driven in this race at Silverstone by Barrie Williams.

1952 Connaught A-Type

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1952 Connaught A-Type of David Wenman which has a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. It is chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. It was driven in this race at Silverstone by Barrie Williams.

1939 Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Norbert Schmitz-Koep's 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis #1566, which was designed for Voiturette racing and had a supercharged 1,491cc straight-4 engine. The 4CL had some success in its first season until racing was curtailed by the Second World War, and dominated racing in the years immediately following the war in the hands of drivers such as Raymond Sommer, Tazio Nuvolari and Luigi Villoresi, until the arrival of the Alfa Romeo 158. The green car next to the Maserati is Dick Skipworth's ERA R3A, which was driven that day by Barrie Williams.

1959 Tojeiro Jaguar

This car competed in the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's Dick Skipworth’s ex-Ecurie Ecosse 1959 Tojeiro Jaguar, driven in the race by Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams. The car  was built for Ecurie Ecosse in 1959 and its first race was the Le Mans 24 Hour race that year, driven by Ron Flockhart and Jock Lawrence, but it retired after 11 hours of racing with a wrecked engine. It was rebuilt and competed in the 1959 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood, driven by Masten Gregory and Jim Clark, but was completely wrecked when Masten Gregory left the circuit at Woodcote Corner. The car was rebuilt many years later in its current form and has the 6-cylinder inline 3,781cc Jaguar XK engine.

1952 Connaught A-Type

This car took part in the two Corporate Jets Historic Grand Prix Cars races over the weekend of 25th and 26th July 1992 at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone.

Gerry Porter and Barrie Williams were listed in the programme of the event as drivers of this 1952 Connaught A-Type which has a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis engine with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. The yellow colour suggests that it is chassis number A4 which was at one time campaigned by the Ecurie Belge team.

1934 ERA R3A

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's the 1934 ERA R3A of Dick Skipworth which was driven in the race by Barrie Williams and has the 6-cylinder inline 1,980cc ERA engine. R3A was the car, with a 1,488cc engine, which Raymond Mays drove to gain ERA's first major international victory, winning the 1935 ADAC Eifelrennen Voiturette race at the Nürburgring. Hans Rüesch was second in a Maserati 4CS with Tim Rose-Richards third in ERA R1A, Richard Seaman fourth in ERA R1B and Humphrey Cooke fifth in ERA R2A

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997 where there was a special display of Ferraris, and the GT race which was a feature of these Coys meetings was reserved for Ferraris with 30 listed in the programme of the event, including 11 of the 250 GTO cars.

This car wasn't listed amongst those taking part in that GT race, but it's the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO of Harry Leventis, chassis 3505GT. Originally built for the British UDT Laystall team, and still bearing their pale green colours, the car was intended to be driven by Stirling Moss, but his career ending accident at Goodwood in April 1962 meant that he never actually got to drive the car in competition. Innes Ireland took his place and won the Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood in August 1992. The car has, of course, the Gioacchino Colombo designed 2,953cc V12 tipo 168 engine.

Car number 61 behind the 250 GTO is the 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, chassis 5031GT, of Richard Taylor that was driven by Barrie Williams in the GT race.

Maserati 250F

This car is being readied in the paddock to take part in the VSCC Flockhart Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

It's a 1957 Maserati 250F, or at least it's a replica built by Cameron Millar in the early 1980s using many original parts. Cameron Millar acquired a genuine Maserati 250F in 1964 which he kept and raced for 8 years. During this time he purchased the remaining cars and spare parts belonging to the Scuderia Centro Sud who had competed with the cars in the 1950s, and also the chassis jigs from the Maserati factory. He then set about building a series of replicas, using these original parts where possible, that are indistinguishable from the genuine Maserati 250F to such an extent that they are allowed by the FIA to take part in historic racing events. There are 12 cars in all, built between 1970 and the early 1990s and given a chassis number prefixed by the letters 'CM'. This particular car is CM5 and was owned at the time of this Donington Park meeting by David Wenman, and driven in the race by Barrie Williams.

Tojeiro Jaguar

This car was entered in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's the ex-Ecurie Ecosse 1959 Tojeiro Jaguar, then owned by the Altera Corporation and driven in the race by Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams. The car was built for Ecurie Ecosse in 1959 and its first race was the Le Mans 24 Hour race that year, driven by Ron Flockhart and Jock Lawrence, but it retired after 11 hours of racing with a wrecked engine. It was rebuilt and competed in the 1959 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood, driven by Masten Gregory and Jim Clark, but was completely wrecked when Masten Gregory left the circuit at Woodcote Corner. The car was rebuilt many years later in its current form.

On 16 October 2013 I showed a photograph of the car (and other ex-Ecurie Ecosse cars) at the 1995 Coys meeting at Silverstone.

Aston Martin DBR4

This car was amongst the competitors in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

It's David Wenman's 1959 Aston Martin DBR4, driven in the race by Barrie Williams. Originally built as a 2½ litre Formula 1 car, the programme of this event showed it to then have an engine capacity of 2,892cc. Four of these cars were built and this one is chassis number 2.

Connaught A Type

I showed two photographs a couple of days ago of David Wenman's ERA R12B at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002 and said that although the ERA wasn't listed in the programme of the event, he had entered two Connaught A Types in the HGPCA Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars race. Here are photographs of one of those cars.

You can see ERA R12B alongside the Connaught, which was driven in the race by Barrie Williams.

Ecurie Ecosse

Ecurie Ecosse was a Scottish motor racing team founded in 1952 and best known for its exploits at the Le Mans 24 Hour race, winning the event in both 1956 and 1957 with their Jaguar D-types. Former Ecurie Ecosse cars were well represented at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995:

This is one of the Jaguar D-types,a 1955 car, owned and driven in the 1995 race by John Harper

A 1956 D-type, driven in 1995 by Frank Sytner and owned by J C Bamford

The 1959 Tojeiro Jaguar, owned in 1995 by the Altera Corporation and driven by Barrie Williams

The Tojeiro again, and behind it is the 1960 Ecurie Ecosse Commer transporter

In 1957 a Race of Two Worlds was organised at Monza for teams from the Formula One World Championship based in Europe to compete against American Indianapolis cars on the banked oval part of the Monza Autodrome. Apart from an entry from Maserati and a privateer Ferrari the only European cars entered were three Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-types. The race was run again in 1958 and this time Ecurie Ecosse entered two D-types and a specially built Lister-Jaguar with a single-seater body, which is the car shown above, although the aluminium body remained unpainted for the 1958 race. After that race the event was discontinued due to both the costs involved and safety concerns. The Lister was owned and driven in 1995 by Ric Weiland.