1950s cars

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Coys International kric Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

The cars on the left are:

TNX 426 1955 Austin A50 Cambridge, 1,500cc

PSK364 1956 Standard Super 10, 948cc

PDO 721 (1960 Morris Minor Series III, DVLA say 848cc – should be 948cc

RDU 597 (1955 Morris Minor Series II, 803cc

I can’t make out the registration numbers of the cars on the right, but they are a 1960s Triumph Herald and a Ford Prefect E493A from 1949-1953

Friday's Ferrari

This is a photograph that I took during practice for the Shell Ferrari Historical Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's Christoph Stieger in Engelbert Stieger's 3 litre 1972 Ferrari 312P, chassis 0888. It has a 2,991cc flat-12 engine, often referred to as the 312PB (the ‘B’ for Boxer to differentiate it from the earlier V12-engined 1969 312P).

1924 Grand Prix Sunbeam

This is a photograph that I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It’s a 1924 Grand Prix Sunbeam which has a supercharged six-cylinder inline 1,988cc engine. Behind it is the 1925 Sunbeam Tiger with a 3,976cc V12 engine.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR

The five times World Drivers Champion Juan Manuel Fangio was featured at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 with a display of some of the cars that he drove in the 1940s and 50s, and the car below was one that was in that display.

Not the actual car that Fangio drove, this is the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR with which Stirling Moss and co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia - Fangio, driving solo, finished in second place over half an hour behind in second place in an identical car. The car is being driven here by John Surtees in a parade of the cars from the display, in which Stirling Moss drove one of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand Prix Cars.

Maserati 3200

This is a photograph that I took at a display by the car dealers Graypaul in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It’s a Maserati 3200, a car that was in production from 1998 to 2002 and had a 3,217cc V8 engine.

1929 Riley Brooklands

This car took part in the Pre War Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It was driven in the race by Richard and Geoffrey Bradford and is a 1929 Riley Brooklands with a tuned version of the Riley Nine's 1,087cc 4-cylinder inline engine. The Riley Nine was designed by two of the Riley brothers, Percy and Stanley, and the Brooklands was the work of John G Parry Thomas and Reid Railton who shortened the chassis by some 15 inches and fitted an undershield the full length of the car. The engine had high compression pistons, special camshafts and 2 carburettors, increasing its output to 50bhp.

Manx Norton 500cc

This is a photograph that I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

There were no motorcycle races at this meeting but there was a small group of motorcycles in a corner of the paddock, though it doesn't get a mention in the programme of the event. The Manx Nortons were made between 1947 and 1962 and the yellow number plate suggests that it's a 500cc model.

1963 Iso Grifo A3C

This was one of the cars entered in the Coys of Kensington Pre 1964 GT Cars race at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 1999.

It's a 1963 Iso A3C driven by Jeremy Agace and Ray Bellm in the race. The car was designed by Giotto Bizzarrini who later left Iso and continued producing the car as a Bizzarrini A3C. The car was entered in the same event the following year when programme of the event had this note about the car:

 

‘Monaco based Agace’s Iso, the company’s Turin show car of ’63, benefits from a hulking great 5.3 litre Chevrolet V8 engine, buried as far back as possible in the cockpit bulkhead for optimum weight distribution. Well balanced, and superbly fettled by Paul Lanzante’s équipe, its impressive Historic log includes winning last year’s Spa 6 hours and the GT class of the Paul Ricard 24 hours in ’98. Co-driver Bellm is still seriously quick.’

1930 Bentley 4½ litre

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's a 1930 Bentley 4½ litre, but despite being called a 4½ litre car the capacity of the 4-cylinder inline engine of the Bentley 4½ litre is only 4,398cc. The DVLA record of GF 3372 says that the car is currently taxed to the end of December 2026.

1960 Maserati T61

This is a photograph that I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the cockpit of the 1960 Maserati T61 of Lindsay Owen-Jones, chassis #2458 which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,890cc engine. The T61, and the 1,989cc T60 were generally known as Maserati Birdcage cars because of the intricate tubular space frame chassis, and in common with many of these cars 2458 started off life in the USA, in this case with Lloyd "Lucky" Casner's Camoradi team. After passing through various hands in the USA it was acquired by Lindsay Owen-Jones in 1992. Sixteen examples of the T61 were produced between 1959 and 1961.

Maserati 300S

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's a Maserati 300S but didn't take part in any of the races that day, nor is it mentioned in the programme of the event and may well be a replica. The Maserati 300S has a 2,991cc 6-cylinder inline engine that was based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a longer stroke, and took part in the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1957.

Friday's Ferrari

This car competed in the Shell Ferrari Historical Challenge race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It’s a 1956 Ferrari 860 Monza which has a Lampredi designed 3,432cc 4-cylinder inline engine and, in conjunction with the 290MM, was victorious in the 1956 World Sportscar Championship, winning three of the five races on the calendar, the 12 hours of Sebring, the Mille Miglia, and the Swedish Grand Prix. This car, #0604M, won the Sebring race that year driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti. At this Silverstone meeting the car was driven by the then owner Nicolaus Springer. and a later owner of the car was Chris Evans.

1994 Williams FW16

This car was on display in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's a 1994 Williams FW16, the type of car with which Damon Hill finished in second place in the 1994 World Championship to Michael Schumacher's Benetton B194. Williams won the Constructors' Championship though, thanks to the efforts of David Coulthard and Nigel Mansell. Damon Hill won six of the sixteen races that season in the 3½ litre V10 Renault-engined car, and Nigel Mansell won the final race in Australia.

1960 Scarab F1

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's a Scarab F1 car which was built by American Lance Reventlow's Reventlow Automobiles Inc to contest the 1960 Formula 1 racing season. Like the Aston Martin DBR4 it was virtually obsolete before it turned a wheel in anger - in the 1959 season, and again in 1960 the old front-engined cars were dominated by the rear-engined ones, and the old 2½ litre Formula was due to be replaced by a new 1½ litre limit in 1961. The car had a 2,441cc 4-cylinder inline engine designed for Scarab by Leo Goossen, formerly of Offenhauser, and only started in two races in 1960, both Lance Reventlow and Chuck Daigh retiring from the French Grand Prix, and the single entry in the USA Grand Prix finished in 10th place driven by Chuck Daigh. At this Silverstone meeting the car was driven by Don Orosco in the Maserati UK Race for Pre 1961 Grand Prix Cars.

1953 Cooper Bristol Mk II

This is a photograph that I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol of Gregor Fisken and was driven in the Pre 1961 Grand Prix Cars race by Peter Bradfield. It is powered by a 1,971cc straight-6 Bristol engine based on the one in the pre-war BMW 328. The original Cooper Bristol was designed as a Formula 2 car, but found itself involved in Grand Prix racing in 1952 and 1953 when the World Championship was run to Formula 2 regulations. Gregor Fisken's car appears to be the ex-Ecurie Ecosse Cooper Bristol MkII (later called the T23) but it should have an air scoop running up the bonnet of the car.

1972 BRM P160E

The 50th Anniversary of the BRM was marked at the Coys International  Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999 by a display of many of the cars, some of which took part in track parades. This is the 1972 BRM P160E which was driven in the track parades by Jean-Pierre Beltoise.

BRM had introduced the P160 in 1971 and it had a relatively successful season, winning two Grands Prix and finishing in second place in the World Constructors' Championship. The car struggled the following season, however, and despite several updates couldn't match the Lotus 72 and when its successor the BRM P180 proved to be uncompetitive the P160 was updated yet again to produce the 160E. The P160E made its debut in the Spanish Grand Prix in April 1972, and despite Jean-Pierre Beltoise winning the Monaco Grand Prix BRM only finished in seventh place in the World Constructors' Championship. The team fared no better in 1973, again finishing in seventh place in the World Constructors' Championship with a solitary fourth place finish by Jean-Pierre Beltoise being its best points-scoring finish. In 1974 Jean-Pierre Beltoise finished in fifth place in the first Grand Prix, in Argentina, but after the Brazilian Grand Prix he completed the season in the P201, though the team used the P160E in several more races that year.

Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars at Silverstone

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield Corner during the Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

Leading is the 1932 Alfa Romeo Monza of Terry Cohn with Tony Bianchi’s 1948 Talbot Lago T26C on the outside and the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Norbert Schmitz-Koep at the rear.

Fifty years of the Formula One World Championship at Silverstone in July 2000

The Coys International Historical Festival meeting of July 2000 marked 50 years of the Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers with a display of cars covering that period, and this is a photograph that I took inside one of the marquees where the cars were displayed.

From the far end the cars here are:

 

1995 Benetton B195

1997 Stewart SF01

2000 Jaguar R1

2000 Jordan EJ10

1998 McLaren MP4/13

And a little bit of the 1950 Alfa Romeo 158

Cooper T45/51

This car took part in the Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the 1958 Cooper T45/51 of Rod Jolley which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,495cc Coventry Climax FPF engine. It is a 1958 T45 model uprated to the specifications of the 1959 T51, and is chassis #F2-23A-58.

1959 Maserati T61

This was one of the competitors in the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It’s Alan Minshaw’s 1959 Maserati T61, generally known as a Maserati Birdcage on account of its space frame chassis and which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,850cc engine. It's chassis #2453, which was totally wrecked in an accident at Daytona in late 1959 but the remains were used to re-create the car in the early 1990s.