1953 Tojeiro Bristol

This car competed in the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Nick Wigley's 1953 Tojeiro Bristol, with a 1,971cc straight-6 engine derived from the pre-war BMW 328 and originally built by John Tojeiro for Cliff Davis. This is the car that inspired the AC Ace Bristol, which in turn led to the Ford V8-engined AC Cobra.

Friday's Ferrari

These cars are coming through the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin during the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Just going out of the picture is the 1957 Connaught C-Type of Michael Steele and he is being followed by the 1952 Ferrari 625A of Alexander Boswell. The Ferrari, chassis #0482, also competed in two rounds of the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge Series at this meeting. It was originally a 2-litre Formula 2 Ferrari 500 and competed in World Championship races in the 1952 and 1953 seasons when they were run to Formula 2 regulations. When the 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into effect in 1954 a four cylinder inline 2,498cc engine was fitted to the lengthened Ferrari 500 chassis and the car was redesignated a Ferrari 625. Later in 1954 a 2,942cc 4-cylinder inline engine from a Ferrari 735 sports car was installed and the car was raced in Australia by Peter Whitehead. Immediately behind the Ferrari is the 1954 Connaught B-Type of Nick Wigley, chassis #B4, and then the 1952 Cooper Bristol Mk1, later known as the T20, of Neil Davies.

Gordini 23S

This was one of the entrants in the 1 hour long RAC Woodcote Trophy for Pre 1956 Sports Cars race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1949 Gordini 23S driven in the race by Eddie McGuire and Nick Wigley and has a 2,262cc straight-6 engine.

On 1 November 2015 I showed photographs of this car at Donington Park in 2004.

Tojeiro Bristol

This car took part in a 10 Lap Scratch Race for 1950s Sports Racing Cars at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

It's Nick Wigley's 1953 Tojeiro Bristol, with a 1,971cc straight-6 engine derived from the pre-war BMW 328. This is the car that inspired the AC Ace Bristol, which in turn led to the Ford V8-engined AC Cobra.

On 15 August 2016 I showed a photograph of this car at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in 2002.

Tojeiro Bristol

This is a car I photographed at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002. It took part in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars.

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 1953 Tojeiro Bristol which was raced in the Oulton Park meeting by Nick Wigley. 

This is 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.