Oldsmobile Curved Dash

This is one of the cars taking part in the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club in June 1991. It was photographed at the start of the run in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.

It's a 1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash, and the programme of the event says this about it:

4     1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash

       Reg: T 260  1 cylinder  5hp

       (Martin Dawson, Oldham)

Originally delivered at a cost of $650 to Mrs Reigel of the Reigel Paper Company, Reigelsville, New Jersey on the banks of the Delaware, she subsequently gave it to her chauffeur (shades of Miss Daisy!). Eventually it passed to a local farmer. Restoration was carried out in the States before the car came to this country in 1989, the T 260 registration was originally allocated in 1903 to an identical Curved Dash Olds by the Devon licensing authority. Light, easy to drive,mechanically quite simple, the high ground clearance of the Curved Dash and its unique suspension made it ideal for poor rutted country roads. With tiller steering and a single cylinder engine developing 4.5bhp at 600 rpm it was said to give "one chug per telegraph pole."

NB: Because I have a son who lives in New Jersey I was curious to know just where Reigelsville was situated, so I looked it up on Google Earth. It turns out that the correct spelling is Riegelsville  (and it's Mrs Riegel and the Riegel Paper Company) and it's actually in Pennsylvania, though it is on the banks of the Delaware River and New Jersey is on the opposite bank.

Starchaser

I photographed this on Friday last week in the playground of St George's Primary School in Hyde.

It's one of the rockets built by Starchaser Industries Ltd of Hyde who with their British space programme are at the forefront of efforts to build a successful space rocket, and in their Space4Schools programme they visit schools to give presentations of the work they are doing to get a British rocket into space.

Crossley 15.7 Coupé

Crossley Motors was based in Manchester and produced a variety of vehicles from 1904 to 1958. Cars were made from 1904 to 1938, buses from 1926 to 1958, and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945.

This is a Crossley I photographed at the Exchange Station car park in June 1986 at the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran & Vintage Car Run organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club.

This is what the programme of the event had to say about the car:

'107   1928 Crossley Sport Coupe,

          Reg: CW 9480 6 Cylinder 15hp

          2100cc

          (N.S.Hindle, Marple, Stockport)'

According to the Crossley Register, however, the car is a 1930 15.7 Coupe and you can see some photographs and a few more details about the car here.

Talbot Lago T120

This car was in the paddock at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 and I've recorded it as a Talbot Lago T120, but I don't have any further information about the car.

Aston Martin DB2

Taking part in one of the races at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May 2002 was the car shown below.

It's an Aston Martin DB2, one of the Aston Martin team cars for the 1951 racing season and was driven at Oulton Park by Chris Woodgate. You can read about the car in this astonmartins.com article.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car I photographed at Silverstone in July 1998 at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting which took part in the Pre-72 Le Mans Car Race.

It's a 1971 Ferrari 512M, serial number 1024, owned at the time by Ed Davies of Florida, USA. The 512M was a modified version of the 512S and www.barchetta.cc says this about the 'M':

'For the 1971 season, Ferrari concentrated on their 312 P(B) sports prototype, and left the 512 entries to the privateers, although they did offer a revised more aerodynamic body package, which had first appeared on the Kyalami winning car in late 1970. This was called the “M” package, “Modificato” or modified, featuring a more wedge shape flatter profile, and all cars converted to this form were coupés. In the USA the Roger Penske team developed their own 512 M, chassis # 1040, which was the quickest 512 of all time, but like the regular cars didn’t meet with much overall success, with no 512 victories during the season. Late in 1971 chassis # 1010 was fitted with a 7 litre engine and converted to run in the American CanAm series. It managed a 4th place at Watkins Glen driven by Mario Andretti, before the car was sold to the NART organisation.'

McLaren M1B

The entry list for the Guards Trophy Race for Sports Cars at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2012 consisted mainly of cars with a capacity of 2 litres or less, but it also included the car shown below.

It's a 1966 5.7 litre McLaren M1B, here at Druids Corner being driven by Chris Goodwin.