1957 Vanwall

This car is in the pit lane at Silverstone prior to going out for the qualifying session for the Chopard HGPCA Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in July 1994.

It's the 1958 Vanwall of Vijay Mallya and was driven in the race by John Harper. The engine for the first Vanwall in 1954 was designed by a Norton engineer, Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four 498cc Norton motorcycle engines with a common waterjacket and cylinder head. This 2 litre engine was enlarged, first to 2,237cc and then to 2,489cc by 1955. Vijay Mallya's car is chassis VW10, the car with which Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and Portugese Grand Prix in the 1958 season when he narrowly lost out to Mike Hawthorn in the race for the World Drivers' Championship title.

 

1958 Vanwall

This car took part in the Pre '61 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1958 Vanwall of Vijay Mallya and was driven in the race by John Harper. The engine for the first Vanwall in 1954 was designed by a Norton engineer, Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four 498cc Norton motorcycle engines with a common waterjacket and cylinder head. This 2 litre engine was enlarged, first to 2,237cc and then to 2,489cc by 1955. Vijay Mallya's car is chassis VW10, the car with which Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and Portugese Grand Prix in the 1958 season when he narrowly lost out to Mike Hawthorn in the race for the World Drivers' Championship title.

1958 Vanwall

This car competed in the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, owned by Vijay Mallya and driven in the race by John Harper. The Vanwall was a very successful competitor in Grand Prix races in 1957 and 1958, winning three races in 1957 when Stirling Moss finished second in the World Driver's Championship to Juan Fangio's Maserati 250F. In 1958 the Vanwall won six races but Stirling Moss again ended up in second place in the World Drivers' Championship, this time by only one point to the Ferrari 246 Dino of Mike Hawthorn who only won one race but had five second place finishes to give him the title. Vanwall's Tony Brooks finished in third place in the Championship, but the points that he and Stirling Moss won were enough to give Vanwall the World Constructors' Championship.

Vanwall

This car took part in the Pre '61 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, that was driven in the race by John Harper. A note in the programme of the event about some of the cars in that race said this about the Vanwall:

Vanwall

The London engineering company Vandervell Products tried longer and harder than others  to prove the contention of boss Tony Vandervell that British cars could take on the Italians - and beat them fair and square. It was a long, hard struggle, but by the end of 1957 Vanwall was the dominant force in grand prix racing, and the following year won the manufacturers' championship. The cars were all broken up when the team stopped racing - all except one car, which was kept for display purposes, and has returned to the winners' circle 37 years on.

I don't think the bit about the other cars being broken up is totally correct as I seem to remember from many years ago that the remaining cars were offered for sale, and certainly the Donington Callection has several examples of the Vanwall.

On 23 May 2017 I showed a photograph of Vijay Mallya's car at the 1993 Coys meeting at Silverstone.

Vanwall

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's John Harper driving Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall, chassis number VW10. It is, I think, the car in which in 1958 Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and the Portugese Grand Prix, and finished in second place in the French Grand Prix. On 29 March 2016 I showed several photographs of VW10 at this 1993 Coys meeting, and on 9 November 2015 I showed photographs of the collection of Vanwalls at the Donington Park Museum.

Vanwall

This car took part in the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, owned at the time by Vijay Mallya - who later became leader of the consortium which ran the Force India F1 team.

The programme of the event said this about the Vanwall:

In 1957 and 1958 British Racing Green finally became the dominant colour in grand prix racing, thanks to the efforts of the Acton-based Vanwall team. After winning three of the last four world championship grands prix of 1957, the Colin Chapman designs were successful in six 1958 races, giving Tony Vandervell, the car's sponsor, the world F1 constructors' championship.

Only one of the original team cars was kept, and it is here at the Coys International Historic Festival. Acquired recently by Vijay Mallya, the Vanwall is entered at Silverstone with the incomparably experienced John Harper as driver, and he will be striving to ensure that its reputation among Formula 1 cars of the era is preserved.

For many racing enthusiasts at Silverstone today, the sight of the Vanwall being raced in anger once again will alone be worth the price of admission, and will bring memories flooding back to those who lived through the years when Britain was struggling to make her mark in the international grand prix arena.

There was a special display of cars, including the Vanwall, to mark the meeting's theme of British Racing Green.

I was fortunate enough to be at Aintree in 1957 when Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks shared the winning drive in a Vanwall when it became the first British car to win a World Championship Grand Prix.

This is the view other drivers most frequently got of the Vanwall in the 1958 season.

Here's John Harper in the race following closely behind the 1958 Maserati 250F of Lindsay Owen Jones at Luffield corner.