Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars at Silverstone

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield Corner during the Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

Leading is the 1932 Alfa Romeo Monza of Terry Cohn with Tony Bianchi’s 1948 Talbot Lago T26C on the outside and the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Norbert Schmitz-Koep at the rear.

Talbot Lago T26C

These two cars competed in the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

Car number 4 is the 1948 Talbot Lago T26C of Tony Bianchi which has a 6-cylinder inline 4,482cc unsupercharged engine. The Talbot Lagos took part in the 1948 (pre-World Championship) Grand Prix races but were generally outnumbered and outclassed by the Ferraris and Maseratis, although Louis Rosier won the Belgian Grand Prix and Louis Chiron the French Grand Prix in one of these cars. Tony Bianchi’s Talbot-Lago T26C is chassis #110 008 which was Philippe Etancelin's car in 1949 and then passed to Jean Achard in November 1950. Achard moved to Brazil, taking the car, and sold it there to Pinheiro Pires who raced it in Brazil from 1951 to 1954. The car came to the UK via Colin Crabbe in the 1980s and then via other UK owners to Tony Bianchi in the 1990s. On the left, car number 1 is Richard Pilkington's 1950 Talbot T26 GS, one that had been adapted to also run in sports car events. It's chassis #110057, the car with which Louis Rosier and Juan Manuel Fangio competed in the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but retired in the 9th hour after completing 92 laps. It was then given an all-enveloping sports car body and ended up in the hands of Georges Grignard in 1953, but after an accident at Montlhéry in 1954 in which his co-driver Guy Mairesse was killed, Grignard locked the wrecked car away in his garage. Richard Pilkington bought the wreckage in 1958 and after racing the car in its sports car form for some years he eventually restored it to its original cycle-wing body form, racing it at historic race meetings in both sports car and vintage GP races.

1949 Talbot Lago T26C

This was one of the competitors in the Pre '52 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1949 Talbot Lago T26C of Tony Bianchi which has a 6-cylinder inline 4,482cc unsupercharged engine. The Talbot Lagos took part in the 1949 (pre-World Championship) Grand Prix races but were generally outnumbered and outclassed by the Ferraris and Maseratis, although Louis Rosier won the Belgian Grand Prix and Louis Chiron the French Grand Prix in one of these cars. Tony Bianchi’s Talbot-Lago T26C is chassis #110 008 which was Philippe Etancelin's car in 1949 and then passed to Jean Achard in November 1950. Achard moved to Brazil, taking the car, and sold it there to Pinheiro Pires who raced it in Brazil from 1951 to 1954. The car came to the UK via Colin Crabbe in the 1980s and then via other UK owners to Tony Bianchi in the 1990s.

Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000 celebrated 50 years of Formula One and today's photograph shows two cars in the pit lane setting out as part of a parade of cars round the circuit marking the event.

There were two Ferrari Dino 246 F1 cars listed in the Pre 1961 Grand Prix Cars Race in the programme of the event, that of Nigel Corner, chassis #0007, number 52 in the race, and Robin Lodge's car, chassis #0006. Robin Lodge has two cars listed for this race, the Ferrari and his recently re-created 1954 Lancia D50, both numbered 42, because of a doubt about the eligibility of the Lancia to take part. In the end Robin Lodge drove the Lancia and the Ferrari took part in the race driven by Willie Green, and it looks as if it was renumbered as 54 - the highest numbered car in the race programme being 53. The blue car behind the Ferrari is the 1949 Talbot Lago T26C of Tony Bianchi that took part in the Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars Race, and is chassis #110 008.

Allard Farrellac

This car competed in the HGPCA Race for Pre 1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

It's Tony Bianchi's 1958 Allard Farrellac, a car that was based on the ex-Peter Collins Allard J2, and you can read about it in this feature by the Allard Owners Club on Allard based Specials.