1959 Aston Martin DBR4

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre 1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's the 1959 Aston Martin DBR4 of Tony Smith, chassis DBR4/4. The DBR4 is a car that was first built and tested in 1957 although it didn't make its Grand Prix debut until 1959. By that time the new generation of rear-engined cars had made the older front-engined cars uncompetitive and the best results it managed were Roy Salvadori's sixth place finishes in the British and Portuguese Grands Prix in 1959. Originally powered by a 6-cylinder inline 2,493cc engine, Tony Smith's car had the same 6-cylinder inline 2,992cc engine as the DB3S sports car.

1956 Aston Martin DB3S

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

Leading is the 1956 Aston Martin DB3S of Tony Smith followed by Adrian Hall's 1955 Lotus Mk X. The car on the right looks like it may be the Lola Mk1 of Irvine Laidlaw.

1960 Aston Martin DB4

This is one of the competitors in the MG Car Club/AMOC Thoroughbred & Classic Sports Car Championship Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1993.

It's the 1960 Aston Martin DB4 of Tony Smith and is pictured at Lodge Corner during the race. The DB4 was produced from 1958 to 1963 and had a 6-cylinder inline 3,670cc engine - though the programme of the event says this car has a 4.2 litre engine.

1952 Connaught A-Type

This was one of the competitors in the Historic Car Championship Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Parkin September 1992.

It's Tony Smith's 1952 Connaught A-Type, chassis A8. The car was designed and built by Connaught Engineering's Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver with a 1,960cc engine based on the Lea Francis 4-cylinder 1,767cc unit, and competed in 1952 and 1953 Grand Prix races which were run under the 2-litre capacity formula. A8 was part of the Connaught Works team in 1953, being mainly driven by John Coombes, Stirling Moss and Prince Bira.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the HGPCA Pre-61 Front Engine Grand Prix Car race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1960 Ferrari 246 Dino of Tony Smith which was the last front engined car to win a Grand Prix race, Phil Hill driving it to victory in the Italian Grand Prix in the next to last race of the 1960 season. At the end of the that season the car was fitted with a 3 litre 250 TR V12 engine and sold to New Zealander Pat Hoare who campaigned the car there for two years before it was sold and drastically altered with a body resembling that of the 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO. In 1978 the car was acquired by Neil Corner who had it restored to its original specifications and raced it in historic events until selling it in 2000 to Tony Smith. The programme of the event says the car has a 2½ litre engine, so presumably it's the 2,475cc V6 engine that it had in 1960.

Maserati Birdcage

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1996 of these three Maseratis that are generally referred to as 'birdcage' cars because of the intricate tubing that makes up the chassis of the car.

On the left, car number 37 is the 1960 Maserati T61 of Tony Smith which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,890cc engine and is chassis 2470. Next to it car 38 is a similar 1959 T61 of Valentine Lindsay which was driven in the race by Stirling Moss and is chassis 2453. The programme of the event shows car 39 to be the identical T61 of Nick Mason, but the car pictured is actually the 1961 Maserati T63 of Edmond Pery, chassis 63002 and apparently has a 3 litre V12 engine. The red car behind the T63 is the 1930/31 Maserati T26 of Anthony Hartley which is chassis 2518 and has an 8-cylinder inline 2½ litre engine.

1955 Aston Martin DB3S

This car took part in one of the races at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1992.

It's the 1955 Aston Martin DB3S of Tony Smith and has the 2,922cc 6-cylinder inline Lagonda engine designed by W O Bentley who moved to Lagonda after his Bentley car company had been taken over by Rolls Royce. This is one of Aston Martin's DB3S customer cars and is chassis DB3S/103, one of three cars originally acquired by the Kangaroo Stable, a group of Australian drivers who came to England in 1955 to race in Europe. The Kangaroo Stable was set up by Tony Gaze, an ex-World War 2 fighter pilot, and included David McKay, Tom Sulman and Jack Brabham. Sports car racing was much restricted in Europe after the Le Mans tragedy in 1955 and the Kangaroo Stable disbanded towards the end of the year. DB3S/103 went to Australia and passed through various hands before returning to the UK and being acquired by Frank Sytner in the mid-1980s, then to Tony Smith in 1991.

Here's Tony Smith at Lodge Corner during the race.

1955 Maserati 300S

This car took part in the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Tony Smith, chassis #3053, and has a 6-cylinder inline 2,991cc engine based on the 2½ litre engine of the 250F Grand Prix car. The car was originally campaigned in the USA by the Briggs Cunningham team and finished in third place in the 1955 Sebring 12 hour race driven by Bill Spear and Sherwood Johnston.

1956 Aston Martin DB3S

This car took part in the Twelve Lap 1950's Sports Car Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It's the 1956 Aston Martin DB3S of Tony Smith and is chassis #DB3S/10, the last of the team cars to be built and has the 2,992cc 6-cylinder inline Lagonda engine. In 1956 it was driven to fifth place in the GP de Rouen by Roy Salvadori and driven by Peter Walker and Roy Salvadori in the Le Mans 24 Hour race but failed to finish. In 1957 the car finished in third place in the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park driven by Noël Cunningham-Reid, and that was its final outing for the Aston Martin team. Peter Whitehead entered the car in the 1957 1000km race at the Nürburgring and finished in ninth place, and the following season the car was acquired by John Dalton.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at McLeans Corner during the HGPCA Race for Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's Tony Smith in his 1960 Ferrari Dino 246 F1 car, originally with a 2½ litre engine in line with the then current Formula 1 regulations, but the programme of this event says it has a 2,952cc engine - presumably the Columbo V12 unit as fitted to the 250 series cars in the 1950s & 60s.

On 24 February 2017 I showed a photograph of this car in the paddock at Donington Park in September 2005.

Aston Martin DBR4

I took these photographs at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1993 where it competed in the Historic Car Championship Race.

It's Tony Smith's 1959 Aston Martin DBR4, built originally with a 2½ litre engine, but at this time powered by a 2,992cc DB3S unit. The DBR4 competed in World Championship races in 1959 in the hands of Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby, but never achieved a top 3 finish. It's chassis number 4 and was later sold to Hubert Fabri.

I've shown photographs of the Aston Martin DBR4 previously - on 7 October 2015 and 8 March 2017 at the 1959 British Grand Prix, when it was known as the DBR4/250 - and on 7 May 2016 and 2 August 2017 at subsequent historic race meetings.

Cooper Jaguar T38

This car competed in the twelve lap 1950's Sports Car Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It's the 3.4 litre straight-6 1955 Cooper Jaguar T38 of John Pearson, chassis CJ-3-55, one of three cars built by Cooper for endurance sports car racing. One of the cars competed in the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but retired after 4 hours with an oil leak.

Here's the car rounding Lodge Corner during the race followed by the 1956 Aston Martin DB3S of Tony Smith.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's Tony Smith's 1960 Ferrari Dino 246 F1, chassis #0788F, and it's the car in which Phil Hill won the last Formula One Grand Prix race to be won by a front-engined car. That was the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1960 when the major British teams boycotted the race because it was run using the combined road and banked oval circuit which they deemed to be unsafe.

Aston Martin DB3S

This car took part in the Autumn Historic Car Races meeting organised by the Aston Martin Owners Club at Oulton Park in September 1992.

It's a 1955 Aston Martin DB3S, chassis number 103, which was originally campaigned by the Kangaroo Stable racing team of Australia. At the Oulton Park meeting it was driven by Tony Smith. Whenever I see a DB3S I think of when I went to see the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1955 where one of the support races was for sports cars, and I remember standing at a bus stop in Liverpool waiting for a bus to Aintree when the four Aston Martin DB3S works cars came trundling past on their way to the circuit. An exciting sight for a 13 year old schoolboy. Those four cars finished in the first four places in the race.

Lotus

There were several Lotuses in the field for the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006 and here are photographs of two of them.

This is a 1982 Lotus 91 in the pit garage

The Lotus 91 driven by Dan Collins during a practice session followed by the 1977 Ensign N177 of John Crowson and the 1978 Williams FW06 of Tony Smith

Dan Collins again during the practice session

The 1976 Lotus 77 of Chris Locke, again during the practice session

Aston Martin DB3S

Here are photographs of three different Aston Martin (or Astin Martin as Jeremy Clarkson would say) DB3S models at the Aston Martin Owners Club Autumn Historic Car Races at Oulton Park in September 1993.

The 1956 DB3S of Hubert Fabri in the paddock

The same car during Race 3 at Foulston's Chicane

Tony Smith's 1955 DB3S (No. 80) and Simon Draper's 1954 model (63 EMU)

The same two cars at Foulston's Chicane. Both cars have the front-end bodywork modifications which were made to the works cars in 1956 prior to the introduction of the DBR1.