1983 Porsche 956

This car was in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's a 1983 Porsche 956, but it didn't take part in the Group C/GTP Sports Cars race that was included in the programme of events that day. The Porsche 956 has a 2,649cc turbocharged Flat-6 engine, and this car is chassis #008, the one that Jochen Mass and Stefan Bellof drove in the 1983 Le Mans 24 Hour race, leading in the early stages but retiring after 22 hours of the race.

Historic Lotus Cars

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's a line-up of historic Lotus cars, but I don't seem to have kept a record of exactly what cars they are. The first car looks like an early Lotus Seven and the second a Lotus 18. The third car is the Lotus Mk III from 1951 which was built to compete in 750 Motor Club racing and therefore had to be based on the Austin 7, using that car's 747cc straight-4 engine. This was the first car to be named a 'Lotus'. The next car is a Lotus Type 14, more commonly known as a Lotus Elite, a car that was produced from 1957 to 1963 and had the 1,216cc Coventry Climax FWE straight-4 engine. At the end of the row is what look like a Lotus Seven Series 3 which was produced from 1968 to 1970. The car in the background is a 1958 Lotus Seven, one of five cars produced that were effectively Le Mans Lotus Elevens with Lotus Seven bodies. This particular car, chassis #421 and registration VGJ4, was at one time owned by Betty Haig who won the National Ladies Hillclimb Championship in 1960 and 1961 with the car which had a 1,460cc Coventry Climax FWB straight-4 engine.

1932 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza

This car competed in two races at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2019.

Shown here in the scrutineering bay, it's the 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza of Chris Mann which he drove for about 10 years in the red colour of Italy until it was rebuilt recently and given this two-tone blue colour scheme as a tribute to prewar French racing driver Hellé Nice. Vittorio Jano designed the 8-cylinder supercharged engine in 1931 originally with a capacity of 2,336cc and Tazio Nuvolari's victory in the 1931 Italian Grand Prix gave it the 'Monza' name. In 1933 the engine was enlarged to 2,557cc and in 1935 to 2,905cc. As Chris Mann's car is a 1932 model it should have the 2.3 litre engine, but the programme of this event shows the capacity as 2,750cc.

Here's Chris Mann at Britten's chicane during the morning practice session.

1951 Marauder

This was one of the exhibits at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1951 Marauder, one of only 15 cars built, 12 of which are thought to still exist. The car was created by two ex-Rover engineers who based it on a shortened version of the Rover P4 75 chassis. The engine is a modified version of the 6-cylinder inline 2,103cc Rover engine and the first few bodies were made by Richard Mead of Dorridge, Solihull, later ones by Abbey Panels of Coventry. The cars were expensive, and when Purchase Tax was doubled for cars priced at over £1,000 the cost became prohibitive and production ceased in 1952.

On 29 May 2016 I showed a photograph of another of these cars that I had taken at Silverstone in 1995.

Friday's Ferrari

I photographed this car at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

This car started off life in 1963 as a Ferrari 250 GTE Series III with the 2,953cc V12 engine, but in the early 1980s was rebodied as a Ferrari 500 TRC. At the time of this Donington Park meeting it was owned by Stuart Anderson and didn't take part in any of the races.

1955 Aston Martin DB3S

I photographed this car in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999, but it didn't take part in any of the races at this meeting.

It's a 1955 Aston Martin DB3S with the 6-cylinder inline 2,992cc engine, one of the customer cars, and is chassis DB3S/108. It was originally painted in the American white and blue colours and delivered to S.H.Arnolt - the 'Wacky' Arnolt of Arnolt Bristol fame, but soon found its way into the hands of Denis Barthel who had the colour changed to British Racing Green. The car then passed through various owners including Victor Gauntlett, who later became owner of the Aston Martin Company.

1960 Bond Formula Junior

These two cars took part in the HSCC/FJHRA Silverline Historic Formula Junior Front Engine race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2018.

They are 1960 Bond Formula Junior cars, the only two that were ever built and unusual in that they were front-wheel drive cars. The project was started by Lawrence Bond and Jon Gordon-Watts in 1959, but because Lawrence Bond insisted in manufacturing the whole car himself (except for the engine) the first car was not completed till the end of the 1960 season. This car was driven by Jon Gordon-Watts in 1961, but by then FJ was dominated by the mid-engined cars and the Bond was not competitive. Chris Featherstone bought the car, together with a second uncompleted car and drawings, wooden patterns and unfinished castings. After an accident at Mallory Park in 1964 caused by a broken rear wishbone the cars were retired and stored until 1997 when the original one was repaired to take part in the 2000 Monaco Formula Junior race. The two cars were bought in 2008 by Andrew Tart who made improvements to the original car and completed the unfinished one and they competed together for the first time in 2011 at Mallory Park. Both cars have 1,100cc Ford 105E engines.

Here's Andrew Tart at Lodge Corner during the qualifying session on the Saturday of the three-day meeting. The other car was driven by Mike Walker.