Airbus A330

This is an aircraft I've been looking out for since I found out about the flightradar24 site and on 13th May 2015 I spotted it for the first time approaching Manchester Airport.

It's an Airbus A330-243 of Etihad Airways in the livery of Premiership Football Club Manchester City

It passed over Hyde at 4.44pm on that day when landing at Manchester Airport

It was flight EY21 from Abu Dhabi and the aircraft registration number is A6-EYE

Etihad Airways is the main sponsor of Manchester City Football Club, and the managing director Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is, I understand, the brother of the owner of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Cooper MkI T4

After they had produced their first 500cc racing car Charles and John Cooper toyed with the idea of producing a small sports car based on a similar chassis and in 1947 built one car using a twin-cylinder Triumph motor cycle engine. The project was never pursued, partly because the Triumph engine lacked the power required, but also because of the need to devote more time to developing the race cars. This 1947 Cooper MkI T4 was part of the display of 500cc cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

This article by the 500 Owners Association tells you something about the car.

Friday's Ferrari

Here's another of the old photographs, this time from the British Empire Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in April 1956.

It's a 1954 Ferrari 735 S Monza, serial number 0444M 54 which was owned and raced by Herbert Mackay-Frazer and had a 4-cylinder 2942cc engine. Only three of this model were produced, and here's what auto.ferrari.com says about the 735 S.

Bristol K5G

This is one of the entrants in the Class K Double Deck Buses pre 1950 in the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally at Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1993.

It's not listed in the programme of the event, but it's a 1938 Bristol K5G with a Roe L27/28R body and was originally in service with Keighley-West Yorkshire Services Ltd.

The photograph above shows the vehicle arriving in the display area and the one below shows it later, after someone had been having a play with the destination blinds.

Maserati V8RI

This is a car which was for a time part of the Donington Collection at the Donington Park racing circuit museum and I photographed it in May 1989.

It's a Maserati V8RI (the 'RI' denoting 'Ruote Independente', or 'Independent Suspension'), one of four cars built in 1935/36, and this is the last one, chassis number 4504. It was bought by the French/Argentine racing driver Marquis George Raphaël Béthenod de las Casas (better known as 'Raph') who sold the car after participating with it in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. Like the other 3 cars it was raced in the USA for many more years.

Minerva

Here's a car that took part in the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage car run in May 1987 organised by the Lancashire Automobile Club. The photograph was taken on the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.

It's a Belgian car, a 1912 Minerva, and the program of the event said this about the car:

22     1912 Minerva

          Reg: HS 457 4 cylinder 38 hp

          (Nigel Bradshaw, Lytham)

Minervas were beefy Belgian racers of which

this blue brute is a superb specimen. They

used Knight sleeve valve engines of more than

2000 cc, and in the 1914 TT came second, third

and fifth.

It's interesting to look at the result of that 1914 Tourist Trophy race. It was run on 10-11 June 1914 and covered 16 laps of the 60.35 km Isle of Man course, a total of 965 km. The result was:

1. Kenelm Lee Guinness     Sunbeam             10 hr 35 min 49 sec at an average speed of 90.83 kph

2. Christian Riecken           Minerva               10 hr 57 min 38 sec

3. Léon Molon                    Minerva               11 hr 22 min 20 sec

4. Richard S Witchell          Straker Squire      11 hr 22 min 50 sec

5. Jean Porporato               Minerva               11 hr 40 min 44 sec

6. W O Bentley                  DFP 12/40           12 hr 24 min 01 sec

The current rules for F1 say that the race distance is 'the smallest number of complete laps that exceeds 305 kilometres' (except for the Monaco GP which is 78 laps, or 260.5 km) and the race cannot exceed 2 hours duration. So the drivers of 1914 had to race for over five times as long and over three times the distance that the current drivers have to cover. The Le Mans 24 hour race and other long distance races are obviously longer, both in time and distance, but these involve regular changes of driver.

Guernsey, May 2015

Another visit to Guernsey a couple of weeks ago to see our grandchildren.....

.....Edward.....

.....and Eliza.

We spent some time in the garden.

Edward with Grandad.

Edward with Grandma.

Mabel the cat even joined us at times.

Eliza with mummy.....

.....and with Daddy.

We went into St Peter Port for Seafront Sunday and Anna couldn't resist trying on a hat at one of the stalls.

No comment!

After lunch we relaxed for a while.....

.....and the excitement of the Monaco Grand Prix enthralled Grandma and Anna.

On the Tuesday before leaving for home we went for a walk through Saumarez Park.....

.....Eliza in the buggy and Edward on his scooter.

And we went to look at the ducks.