1963 Merlyn Mk4/6

This is a photograph that I took at the Knickerbrook chicane during the 60 minute long Historic Motor Racing News Gentlemen Drivers Sports Racing Challenge race at the Gold Cup Meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

Leading is the 1963 Merlyn Mk 4/6 shared by Gareth Burnett and James Diffey followed by the 1963 Lotus 23B of Denis Welch. Colchester Racing Developments was founded in 1960 by Clive Maskrey and Selwyn Hayward and produced Merlyn racing cars from 1960 to 1979. The Mk 4 sports car was built to FIA Appendix C regulations and could be powered by either an 1,100 cc Ford Anglia inline four or 1,998 cc Coventry Climax engine but the programme of the event shows that this car has a 1,558cc engine. The Lotus 23 was introduced in 1962 to compete in the smaller classes of sports car  racing and was used with engines with capacities ranging from  750cc up to 1600cc. The programme says that this car has a 1,598cc engine, presumably the Ford Kent derived 4-cylinder inline Cosworth unit. It proved to be an extremely successful car and about 130 examples of the Lotus 23, 23B and 23C were produced between 1962 and 1963.

1937 Alta 2 Litre Sports

This car competed in the Bill Phillips Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's the 1937 Alta 2 Litre Sports of John Ruston which was driven in the race by James Diffey. Geoffrey Taylor formed the Alta Car and Engineering Company and produced his first car in 1929, the name 'Alta' apparently being chosen when he read a novel which referenced the town of Alta in Alberta, Canada and the name appealed to him. He produced a number of cars in the 1930s, firstly with a twin overhead camshaft 4-cylinder inline 1,074cc engine which was later increased to 1,496cc and then 1,960cc. John Ruston's car has a supercharged 1,960cc engine and was once driven by George Abecassis and Tony Gaze.

Porsche 904/6

This car competed in the 90 minute long Historic Motor Racing News Gentlemen Drivers GT And Sports Endurance Race at the HSCC's Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

It's Irvine Laidlaw's 1965 Porsche 904/6, and he shared the driving in this race with James Diffey. The original Porsche 904, introduced in 1964 had a 1,966cc flat-four engine but the 1965 car had a variant of the Porsche 911's flat-six engine of 1,991cc. A few cars were built with a flat-eight engine of 1,962cc based on the engine of the 1962 804 F1 car. Irvine Laidlaw's car is chassis 906-012 and was originally a Porsche works car that took part in the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hour race driven by Günter Klass and Dieter Glemser, but it failed to finish, retiring after 16 hours with a broken camshaft.

On 2 May 2015 I showed a photograph of Burkhard von Schenk's Porsche 904/6 that I had taken at Donington Park in 2004.