1912 Stoewer Open Tourer

This car took part in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in May 1992, starting in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester.

It's a 1912 Stoewer Open Tourer, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it was entered by Kevin Bann of Fence, Burnley, and that it ran in the class for cars from 1905 to 1918 of over 20hp RAC rating. The Stoewer company was founded by Emil and Bernhard Stoewer in Stettin (then in Germany) and produced cars from 1899 to 1940. At the end of the Second World War that part of Germany was occupied by the Russians who closed the factory down, and in 1945 Stettin became part of Poland and was renamed Szczecin. I've been unable to find out any more information about this particular car.

1925 Bugatti Type 13 Brescia

The Williams Trophy Race for Pre 1935 2-Seater Racing cars was run alongside the Seaman Trophy for Vintage Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Donington Park in May 2001 and this is one of the cars that competed in that race.

It's the 1925 Bugatti Type 13 of David Marsh which has a 16-valve 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc engine. Five examples of the Type 13 were produced before the First World War and when the war was over Ettore Bugatti prepared the cars for racing. The cars took the first four places in the 1921 Brescia Grand Prix and the Type 13 subsequently became known as the Brescia Bugatti. There was a great demand for the car and its derivations and 2000 were built before production ended in about 1926.

Jean Behra

This is a photograph taken by my brother during practice day at the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone in July 1956.

It's French racing driver Jean Behra beside the Maserati 250F that he drove in the race. Officine Alfieri Maserati entered four cars for the race to be driven by Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, Cesare Perdisa and Paco Godia, and there were also seven privately entered Maserati 250Fs. Stirling Moss retired from the race but Jean Behra finished in third place behind the Lancia-Ferraris of Juan Fangio and Peter Collins. The other two works cars and two of the privately entered Maserati 250Fs finished in the first eight in the race, the fourth place finisher being Jack Fairman in a Connaught B-Type. Jean Behra ended the season in fourth place in the World Drivers' Championship behind Juan Fangio, Stirling Moss and Peter Collins.

On 10 July 2016 I showed a photograph that I had taken of Jean Behra at Aintree in 1958.

Friday's Ferrari

Three Ferraris at the exit of the Knickerbrook chicane during the 50 minute long GT Challenge race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

This is the Ferrari F430 Challenge of Wayne Marrs which isn't listed in the programme of the event and he didn't nominate a co-driver for the race. The Ferrari F430 Challenge has the F136 E Ferrari-Maserati 4,308cc V8 engine.

This car is the 1999 Ferrari 360 driven by Matthew Wilton and John Cowan and is powered by the F131 3,586cc V8 engine.

This is the another Ferrari F430 Challenge, that of Tony Jones, who also did not nominate a co-driver. The Ferrari 430 Challenge was in production from 2007 to 2010.

1978 Brabham BT46B

This is a photograph I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989 of a controversial Grand Prix car that only competed in one race in this configuration.

It's the 1978 Brabham BT46B, powered by a 2,995cc Alfa Romeo flat-12 engine. This was a Brabham BT46 modified by Gordon Murray in order to counter the dominant Lotus 78, the underside of the body of which was designed to allow the flow of air to 'suck' the car closer to the ground and allow higher cornering speeds. Gordon Murray's answer to this was the enormous fan at the rear of the car, ostensibly to cool the engine but which also had the effect of drawing the air from beneath the car more quickly thus increasing the ground effect. The car only competed in one race in this form, the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix where Nike Lauda won convincingly, helped in no small part in the latter stages of the race when a back-marker dropped oil on the track which proved less of a problem for the Fan Car (as it was dubbed) than for the other competitors. There was lots of controversy about the car as movable aerodynamic devices were not allowed, but FISA accepted that the main purpose of the fan was to cool the engine - which was known to have overheating problems - and the race result was allowed to stand. The Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) was founded that year and Bernie Ecclestone, then owner of Brabham, became Chief Executive of the organisation. Fearing he would lose the support of the other constructors he agreed that the BT46B would not compete in any future races. 

The concept of ground effects is more fully explained in this article.

1979 Lotus 80

This car took part in the Grand Prix Masters race for F1 cars from 1966-1986 at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1979 Lotus 80 of Sid Hoole which has a 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFV engine. The car was designed by Colin Chapman to maximise the benefits of ground effects produced by the body but it proved to be unsuccessful. Mario Andretti competed in only three Grand Prix races in the car, finishing in third place in Spain and retiring from the Monaco and French Grands Prix.

Jensen S-V8

I photographed this car amongst the cars displayed by various car clubs at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2017.

It's a 2000 Jensen S-V8, one of only about 32 cars produced in an abortive attempt to revive the Jensen name. The cars have the same 4,601cc 32-valve four-camshaft V8 engine that powered the Ford Mustang.