1957 Maserati 300S

This car took part in the Louis Vuitton '50s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1957 Maserati 300S, chassis #3074, of Mark Knopfler and 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. The car was originally bought by Brazilian driver Antonio Mendes de Barros and stayed in South America till the 1970s when it was acquired by Australian Bruce Spicer, then via Bob Jane and John R Sheppard to Kerry Manolas. In 1994 it was bought by Mark Knopfler. The number 10 car behind the Maserati is Hartmut Ibing's 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.

Maserati 300S

This car is being refuelled before the start of practice at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1956 Maserati 300S of German driver Hartmut Ibing, which was originally supplied to Spanish driver Francisco Godia-Sales with chassis number 3066 but was renumbered to 3056 when it was modified by the factory and given engine number 3056 in 1958. The Maserati 300S was produced from 1955 to 1959 to challenge for the World Sportscar Championship, and had a 2,993cc straight-6 engine that was derived from the 2½ litre Grand Prix engine used in the Maserati 250F but with a longer stroke.

Maserati T61

This car was one of the contestants in the 'Classic Car' Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1960 Maserati T61 'Birdcage' of Hartmut Ibing, and was driven in the race by Peter Hannen. The Maserati T61 had a 2,890cc inline 4-cylinder engine, and this car is chassis #2461 which was acquired when new by Lloyd Casner for his Camoradi team, for whom it won the 1960 Nürburgring 1000 km race in the hands of Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney.

Maserati 300S

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 included a race for 1950s sports cars - the Classic Car Sports Car Race - and three examples of the Maserati 300S are listed for that race in the programme of the event. The 300S was produced by Maserati from 1955 to 1959 to contend the World Sportcar Championship and had a straight-6 engine based on the 250F Grand Prix car's 2½ litre unit, but with a longer stroke to bring the capacity up to 3 litres.

Car number 20 was entered by Richard Crump to be driven by Willie Green, and may be chassis #3054, a 1955 model.

Number 21 was Hartmut Ibing's car, probably chassis #3066, a 1956 car.

Number 22 was Burkhard von Schenk's entry, a 300SI model from 1959 and chassis #3082.

In addition to these three cars there was another 300S in the race, number 23, which according to the programme was supposed to be Thomas Bscher's Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage.

He had evidently decided to drive his 300S instead, and this is a 1955 car, chassis #3053.

On 22 September 2016 and 31 October 2016 I featured other examples of the Maserati 300S.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the BRDC '60s GT Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Hartmut Ibing's 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, one of three such cars in the race, and the programme of the event had this to say about them:

'In keeping with today's Ferrari theme, there are no fewer than three teams of Maranello cars in the GT race, one from Italy, one from the Netherlands and one British. Included in the total are three GTOs. They are headed by Nick Mason's car, registered 250GTO, originally an Ecurie Francorchamps car which was third at Le Mans in 1962 and won the following year's Spa 500km race. Sir Anthony Bamford's was first raced by David Piper, though German driver Hartmut Ibing's was campaigned by rather less successful drivers.

Stirling Moss, who raced the prototype GTO right at the end of his career, is the star driver in the Ferrari line-up, partnering Mason, while former British touring car champion Frank Sytner drives the Bamford car and historic racing star Peter Hannan shares Ibing's car.'

The serial number of Hartmut Ibing's car is 3809GT and you can see here on the barchetta.cc website who the 'rather less successful drivers' were who originally campaigned this car.