1966 Lola T90

The Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting in August 2008 featured a celebration of 50 years of Lola Cars which included a display of various models, some of which took part in a parade of the track during the meeting. One of the cars on display was the one pictured below.

The programme of the event doesn't mention this car, but it's a Lola T90 bearing the number 24 which was the number of Graham Hill's Lola T90 Red Ball Special when he won the 1966 Indianapolis 500 race. Photographs of Graham Hill's car, however, show the front part of the nose to be painted yellow with a gold stripe running up the centre of the car. The car shown here resembles Jackie Stewart's similar Lola T90 (designated the Bowes Seal Fast Special) which was number 43 and finished in 6th place.

1952 Allard J2X Le Mans

This car competed in the Hawthorn International Trophy race at the Vintage Sports Car Club meeting at Oulton Park in June 2005.

It's the1952 Allard J2X Le Mans of Tom Walker. The Allard J2 had motor cycle style mudguards and the J2X was introduced to comply with 1952 FIA regulations which said that cars must have all-enveloping bodywork.

1928 DeSoto Race Special.

This is a photograph that I took at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It’s not mentioned in the programme of the event but I found a Bonhams sales catalogue online which gives the following information about the car:

 

1928 DeSoto Race Special

2,790cc Chrysler Flathead 6-Cylinder Engine

Approx. 45bhp

2 Edmunds Carburettors

Direct Drive

Front and Rear Live Axles with Leaf Springs

Rear Drum Brakes

Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race 1965

This is a photograph that I took at the start of the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 1965.

Number 14 is the 1936 ERA R9B of Peter Waller, 27 is the 1936 Frazer Nash of Arthur Gibson and 20 is Basil Bowman’s 1939 Talbot Lago.

1954 Cooper Mk IX

This is the 1954 Cooper Mk IX of D.Price which competed in a 5 lap Scratch Race for 500cc Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

After the Second World War motor racing in the UK was slow to re-start, partly because of petrol rationing and the cost of running a suitable car. Home-built ‘specials’ powered by 500cc motorcycle were created to provide a reasonably cheap way means of getting involved in the sport. John Cooper and Eric Brandon, with the assistance of John’s father Charles, decided in 1946 to build two cars, and in 1947 in the second post-war race meeting to be held Eric Brandon won the first race to feature 500cc cars. In 1950 this 500cc class of racing was adopted by the FIA as a new Formula 3, and John and Charles Cooper went on to build a series of these 500cc cars, eventually graduating to Formula 2, then Formula 1 culminating in Jack Brabham winning the World Drivers’ Championship in 1959 and 1960 in the 2½ litre Cooper Climax. There's a 500 Owners Association for all 500cc Formula Three enthusiasts, with lots of information about the different marques that took part.

1957 Maserati 250F

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It’s Neil Corner’s 1957 Maserati 250F which has a 6-cylinder inline 2,493cc engine. The car is chassis #2528 and was campaigned mainly by Jean Behra in the 1957 season, but also driven that year by Juan Fangio and Harry Schell. It has been owned and raced by the Corner family, Neil and his son Nigel, since 1972. The car competed in the Allcomers Scratch Race at this meeting.

1960 BRM P48

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in September 1960.

It shows two of the three BRM P48s that took part in the race, number 14 was driven by Jo Bonnier, who finished the race in fifth place and number 15 was Dan Gurney’s who was sixth. The third BRM was driven by Graham Hill who ended up in third place. The race was won by Stirling Moss in a Lotus 18.

The  BRM P48 was an unsuccessful rear-engine version of the P25 and this was the last season for the 2½ litre cars. BRM competed in the 1961 season with the P48/57, a car that was basically a P48 fitted with a 1½ litre engine, which was no more successful than the P48. The next season, however, a new car, the P57 with a new 1½ litre V8 engine, was built and with this car Graham Hill won the 1962 World Championship.

1957 Kurtis KK500G Offenhauser

I took this photograph during practice for the Hawthorn Trophy Race for Post-War Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2019.

It's the 1957 Kurtis KK500G Offenhauser of Stuart Harper, which was shown in the programme of the event as a 4.2 litre Kurtis Indy Roadster. This is the car that Ray Crawford took to the Indianapolis 500 race in 1957 and 1958 as the Meguiar Mirror Glaze Special, but failed both times to qualify for the race. Ray Crawford took part in the Race of Two Worlds round the banked oval at Monza with the car in both 1957 and 1958, one-sided exhibition events that pitted American Indianapolis cars against a motley collection of European cars. The race in both years consisted of three heats with the winner being the best car over the three races. In 1957 Ray Crawford's results in the heats were seventh, fourth and retired, and in 1958 tenth, eighth and fourth.

1995 Audi A4

This is a photograph that I took at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2018.

An article in the programme of the event says that the British Touring Car Championship was celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2018 and there were a number of touring cars in the paddock which didn’t take part in the touring car race at this meeting, but there’s no mention of them in the programme. This is one of those cars, and it appears to mark to the 1995 Championship which was won by Frank Bielsa in an Audi A4.

1953 Jaguar C-Type

I took this photograph at Lodge Corner during the Jack Fairman Cup race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

It's David Brazell’s 1953 Jaguar C-Type which has the 3,442cc 6-cylinder inline Jaguar XK engine. The car is actually a replica based on a 1952 Jaguar XK120, chassis no. 672178.

1935 Standard Avon 'Le Mans' Special Tourer

This is a car that I saw in one of the car parks at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2017.

It’s a 1935 Standard Avon 'Le Mans' Special Tourer, 1 of only 9 ‘Le Mans’ style examples manufactured by Avon.

It’s based on the Standard 9 and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,056cc engine’

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at the Knickerbrook chicane during the Aston Martin GT Challenge race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017.

It's the 2000 Ferrari 360 driven in the 50 minute race by Matthew Wilton and John Cowen. There were two versions of the Ferrari 360, the Modena and the Challenge, as well as a Spider version, each with a 3,586cc V8 engine. It doesn't say in the programme of the event which version this is, but presumably it's the Challenge.

1959 Lotus 16

This car competed in the Cheshire Building Society’s Allcomers Race at the  Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in Jun 1984.

It’s Bruce Halford’s 1959 Lotus 16 which has a 2,495cc straight-4 Coventry Climax FPF engine. Bruce Halford raced in Formula One from 1956 to 1960, firstly with a Maserati 250F, then a Lotus 16 in 1959 and with Cooper T45 and T51 in 1960. In the mid-1970s he bought this Lotus 16 and competed at Historic meetings himself for several years. The Lotus 16 was raced by Team Lotus, and private entrants, from 1958 to 1960 with little success in World Championship races. Colin Chapman had to wait until the Monaco Grand Prix of 1960 for his first Lotus victory, achieved by Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's Lotus 18.

1952 Connaught A-Type

I took this photograph at Lodge Corner during the Allcomers Scratch Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's Gerry Walton's 1952 Connaught A-Type with a 1,960cc engine based on the Lea Francis 4-cylinder 1,767cc unit, and is chassis A8. Ten Connaught A-Types were built and A8 is one of only two that  featured a Hilborn-Travers fuel injection system instead of the Amal carburettors that were fitted to the other eight cars. It was mainly driven in period as a works car by John Coombes, Stirling Moss and Prince Bira. A later owner, Mike Young, sold the 2 litre engine and installed a 2½ litre HWM-Alta engine in 1955 to take part in Formula One racing and later took the car to South Africa. Phil Bowker subsequently bought the car and Gerry Walton sourced the Lotus 10 with the original engine which was reunited with A8. Gerry Walton acquired the car in the late 1960s and fully restored it to its 1953 state, competing with it until 1988.

1965 Shelby Cobra

This is a photograph that I took at the Knickerbrook chicane during qualifying for the Guards Trophy race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2017.

It’s the 1965 Shelby Cobra of Paul Gibson which has a 4.7 litre Ford V8 engine.

1979 TVR 3000M

This is a photograph that I took at Britten’s chicane during the HSCC Roadsports Championship Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

Julian Barter in his 1979 TVR 3000M is leading, closely followed by the 1970 TVR Tuscan of Jim Baynham.

1937 Lagonda LG45

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It’s the 1937 Lagonda LG45 of A.W.Barker who competed in two 4 lap handicap races at the meeting. The LG45 was produced from 1935 to 1937 and had a 6-cylinder inline 4,453cc engine which is a modified Meadows unit. The Lagonda Club has this information about the LG45.

1931 MG C Type Montlhery

I took this photograph at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's the 1931 MG C Type Montlhery of D.H.Cooksey which has a 747cc supercharged engine. The MG C Type was developed from a car designed for International speed record attempts and was based on the 847cc MG M Type with a supercharged engine reduced to 743cc to try to capture speed records in the under 750cc class H. In January 1931 Captain George Eyston succeeded in setting speed records for this class with several runs at the Montlhery race track in France at over 100mph and the subsequent production MG C-Type was given the tag 'Montlhery'.

Willys Jeep

This is a photograph that I took in one of the car parking areas at the Vintage Sports car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1975.

It’s a Willys Jeep, and it was quite common to see these vehicles  at meetings, particularly when bad weather was expected, to help people get their cars out when they became bogged down.

1930's ERA

This is a photograph that I took at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1965.

It’s a 1930’s ERA, but unfortunately it has no race number (there is what looks like a faded ‘27’ on the front of the car, but that was a Frazer Nash at this meeting) and there were 7 ERA’s entered in the Historic Trophy Race. I'm told by people with a greater knowledge of  ERAs than me that this is the 1936 ERA R5B ('Remus') of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay.