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 July 2000.

It's the 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 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.’

1963 Lotus 24

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

This car is leaving the pit lane during a practice session for the Maserati UK Race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix & Tasman Cars. The programme of the event says that it's the 1963 Lotus 24 of Jeremy Agace, although it doesn't look like one. I found an online Autosport Forum which says that it has a Lola body and it also has a 2 litre BRM engine.

1953 Tojeiro Bristol

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting of July 1998 marked 50 years of motor racing at Silverstone and there was a display of cars marking each of those years.

This is the Tojeiro Bristol of Jeremy Agace which represented the year 1953. In the 1950s Cliff Davies, a London car dealer and enthusiastic club racing driver, asked John Tojeiro to provide him with a chassis into which he could fit a 2 litre Bristol engine. This chassis was given an aluminium body which was very similar in style to the 'Barchetta' bodies which had been popularised by Ferrari, and the car pictured above was the result. It's the car that John Tojeiro showed to the directors of AC Cars Ltd in Thames Ditton who were so impressed that they used the design as the basis for the AC Ace, which later evolved into the AC Cobra.

Pit Lane Activity

The cars here are moving out of the pit lane at the start of the qualifying session for the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading the exodus are the Maserati 250F's of Jeremy Agace and Thomas Bscher. Jeremy Agace's car (number 2) is a 1954 car with a 6-cylinder inline 2,490cc engine and is chassis #2507/1. Thomas Bscher's car (number 4) is a 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531, one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems.

 

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1953 Ferrari 250MM of Jeremy Agace, chassis #0390MM, and was originally owned by Spanish driver Alfonso, Marquis de Portago. A total of 31 of these cars were produced, some with Berlinetta bodywork by Pinin Farina and the others with Barchetta bodywork by Vignale. They had the 2,953cc V12 engine designed by Gioacchino Colombo.

1955 Lotus Mk X

This car took part in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1955 Lotus Mk X of Jeremy Agace, identical to the Mk VIII but which can be identified by the hump in the bonnet to accommodate the tall 1,971cc Bristol engine. The Mk VIII was designed to run in the 1500cc class and was powered by smaller capacity Ford, MG or Coventry Climax engines.

Lotus Mk X

This car is listed as the 2nd reserve entry in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race in the programme of the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1955 Lotus Mk X of Jeremy Agace, identical to the Mk VIII but which used the 1,971cc Bristol engine in place of the smaller capacity Ford, MG and Coventry Climax engines typically used by the Mk VIII. The Mk X has a hump in the bonnet to accommodate the taller Bristol engine.

On 13 May 2015 I showed a photograph of this car that I had taken at Donington Park in 2004.

Maserati 250 S

This car took part in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's the 1956 Maserati 250 S of Jeremy Agace. This car started off life as the 1,484cc 4-cylinder Maserati 150 S of Argentinian Alejandro De Tomaso with the chassis number 1660. In 1957 it was converted to a Maserati 250 S with a 2,489cc 4-cylinder engine and given a new chassis number 2411.

Maserati 250Si

This car competed in the 1950s Sports Racing Cars  race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's Jeremy Agace's 1956 Maserati 250Si, a car that started off life as a Maserati 150S #1660, but was converted into 250S #2411 in 1957.

Ford GT40

I took this photograph at the HGPCA's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

According to the programme of the event car number 101 is a 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB, to be driven in the 2¼ hour long Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance Race by Jeremy Agace and Bill Wykeham. The car above is obviously a Ford GT40, however, and there's no mention of it in the programme. It appears to be the 1965 GT40, chassis number P/1027 that was used as a camera car for the movie 'Grand Prix' and which thereafter remained in the USA until it was acquired in 2000 by Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB Excavators Ltd, whose colours it bears in this photograph.

ISO A3/C

This is one of the cars which competed in the Coys of Kensington Pre 1964 GT Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

Shown in the programme of the event as an Iso A3C, it belonged to Jeremy Agace and was driven by him and Ray Bellm in this 50 minute race. The car was designed by Giotto Bizzarrini for Renzo Rivolta as a successor to the Iso Rivolta IR 300, but when Bizzarrini split from Iso Rivolta he started his own company and the A3C formed the basis of the Bizzarrini 5300 Corsa. The programme said this 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 is 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. C0-driver Bellm is still seriously quick.

Friday's Ferrari

Three Ferraris today photographed at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992 from the same point as the Maseratis shown in the post on Tuesday.

This is a 1958 Ferrari 250TR, serial number 0606 ,driven by the Italian Paolo Sebastiani, otherwise known as 'Stingbrace'

A 1957 Ferrari 500TRC, serial number 0682MDTR, driven by David Cottingham

A 1953 Ferrari 250MM, serial number 0390MM, driven by Jeremy Agace