Auto Unions

This is a photograph I took at Donington Park in May 2001 when Audi brought an Auto Union C-Type and D-Type, and other cars, to the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting.

 

This was taken during one of the demonstration runs and the cars are on the stretch of circuit between the Old Hairpin and Starkey's Bridge, the 1937 supercharged 6-litre V16 Auto Union C-Type ahead of the 1938 supercharged 3-litre V12 Auto Union D-Type.

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.

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.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a photograph that I took of one of the F1 Ferraris that took part in a series of demonstration runs at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's a Ferrari 412 T2, one of the cars that contested the 1995 Grand Prix season in the hands of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger. The World Championship was won that season by Michael Schumacher in a Renault powered Benetton B195 with Jean Alesi in fifth place and Gerhard Berger sixth. The only Grand Prix victory for Ferrari that season was Jean Alesi's win in the Canadian Grand Prix, and he also had four second place finishes. Gerhard Berger's best results were six third place finishes.

 

The programme of the Donington Park meeting doesn't record the names of any of the drivers taking part in the demonstration runs.

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.

1936/39 Delahaye 135

This car competed in four races at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1985.

 

The only information about it in the programme of the event is that it was the 1936/39 Delahaye of W.D.Fox and had a 3500cc engine. The Delahaye 135 was produced from 1935 to 1954 with a 6-cylinder inline engine, initially of 3,227cc, later increased to 3,557cc. I have been unable to find out any further information about W.D.Fox.

1953 NSU Rennmax

The VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001 featured the return of Auto Union C- and D-types to the circuit where they had appeared in 1937 and 1938, winning on both occasions. As well as those two cars there was a selection of other cars and motorcycles from the Audi stable.

This is one of the motorcycles, one of the NSU Rennmax with which Werner Haas and Reg Armstrong finished first and second in the 250cc class in the 1953 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.

1927/39 ERA Delage

This car took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It's Ray Potter's ERA Delage which appeared alongside ten ERAs in the 29 car field for this race. The car had a 6-cylinder 1,488cc ERA engine with two-stage Roots supercharging, and the programme of the event said this about the it:

 

'Ray Potter's ERA-Delage has the engine from one of the ill-fated E-type ERAs in a 1927 GP Delage chassis.'

 

The Delage was one of Albert Lory's 1927 Delage 15 S8 cars which had dominated the 1927 season, winning all four of the European Grand Prix races.

1935 Lagonda Rapier

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

It’s the 1935 Lagonda Rapier of I.Rowe which the programme of the event says had a 1,100 cc engine. 470 of these cars were built by between 1934 and 1935 and a further 46 by Rapier Cars who took over the rights to make the Rapier after the Lagonda company failed in 1935. It was originally made with a 4-cylinder inline 1,104cc engine which was later reduced to 1,084cc to allow it to compete in the 1,100cc racing class.

1956 Connaught C-Type

Martin Morris drove this car in the Cheshire Building Society's Allcomers race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's a 1956 Connaught C-Type, the eighth and last chassis built but it never competed in a Formula One race. It has the same 4 cylinder 2,470cc Alta engine that powered the Connaught B-type.

1952 Connaught A-Type

This car took part in a 10 lap race for Pre-1961 Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's the 1952 Connaught A-Type of Gerry Porter which has a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. It is chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. It was driven in this race at Silverstone by Barrie Williams.

1955 Jaguar D-Type

This is a photograph that I took just outside the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It’s a 1955 Jaguar D-Type and the registration number 774 RW seems to indicate that it is  XKD505, the car with which Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

2000 Audi R8

In May 2001 Audi brought an Auto Union C-Type and a D-Type to the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park, together with several other cars and motorcycles. This was one of the other cars which they brought, pictured  on the stretch between the Old Hairpin and McLean's Corner during a demonstration run that day.

It’s the 2000 Audi R8, developed from the previous year's R8R and powered by the same 3.6 litre V8 engine. The R8 competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race six times, from 2000 to 2005, winning on 5 occasions (finishing in the first three places in 2000) and being beaten only in 2003 - by the Bentley Speed 8.

1935 Frazer Nash

This car took part in a ‘Handicap Race for Frazer Nash and GN Cars’ at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It’s the 1935 Frazer Nash of B.Hopkins, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it had a 1,498cc engine, presumably the 4-cylinder inline Meadows unit.

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 1972.

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.

Lotus Exige

This is a photograph that I took as I was leaving the Donington Park circuit at the end of the SeeRed meeting in May 2011.

It’s probably a Lotus Exige a car which was produced by Lotus from 2000 to 2021 with various different engines, but since the DVLA says that the vehicle details for P3 SKE could not be found I’m unable to give a more precise definition.

1936 Lagonda LG45 and 1913/18 Monarch

I took this photograph during a Four Lap Handicap Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in 1993.

David Hine in his 1936 Lagonda LG45 is leading the 1913/18 Monarch of Mark Walker at Foulstons chicane.