Friday's Ferrari

The Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 included 'A Demonstration of Italian Racing Cars' and here, if you look closely, are two of the cars that took part.

The leading car is the 2.992cc flat-12 1980 Ferrari 312 T5 of John Fenning, being driven here by Mike Littlewood. Immediately behind him (you can just see the tops of his rear wheels and roll bar) is what appears to be the 1978 Ferrari 312 T3 of Nick Mason. The T5 was driven in the 1980 season by Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter, neither of them having a successful year and finishing in fourteenth and nineteenth places respectively in the Drivers' World Championship.

On 15 February 2019 I showed a photograph on another lap of the demonstration run with the cars almost side by side.

1964 Diva 10F

This car took part in The HSCC Guildford Estates Classic Sportscar Championship race at the Historic Sports Car Club's Spring Historic Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 1987. 

It's the 1964 Diva 10F of Guildford Estates Ltd and was driven in the race by Nick Overall. Diva manufactured sports cars from 1961 to 1966, four models being produced for track use only, the Diva GT B Type, C Type and D Type, and a mid-engined car, the Valkyr. The Diva 10F was the only car designed for road use and was a version of the GT cars with thicker fibreglass bodywork and a more flexibly mounted engine. The only information about the car in the programme of the event was that it had a 1,298cc engine, presumably the 4-cylinder inline Ford Kent unit.

1993 Rickman

Walking through the back streets of Hyde in May this year I saw this car parked at the side of the road and didn't have a clue what it was. 

It seems it's a 1993 Rickman kit car, produced by Rickman Engineering Limited, a firm originally established by Derek and Don Rickman in 1960 to make motorcycle frames for scrambles and later road racing. For a time they also made complete motorcycles, at first with Royal Enfield engines and later with other powerplants. In 1985 the company began producing a small  four wheel drive kit car using various donor mechanicals, and according to the DVLA record this car has a 1.6 litre engine, possibly a 4-cylinder inline 1,599cc Ford Kent engine.

1955 Lotus Mk X

This car took part in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1955 Lotus Mk X of Jeremy Agace, identical to the Mk VIII but which can be identified by the hump in the bonnet to accommodate the tall 1,971cc Bristol engine. The Mk VIII was designed to run in the 1500cc class and was powered by smaller capacity Ford, MG or Coventry Climax engines.

Jaguar C-Type Replica

During the Jaguar Drivers' Club's meeting at Oulton Park in April 1987 there was a parade round the circuit by some of the JDC members in their cars. I took these photographs close to the Cascades corner where the cars gathered before joining the circuit at Clay Hill via the old short circuit track.

It's a Jaguar C-Type, presumably a replica with a 6-cylinder 3,442cc Jaguar XK6 engine. I can't find any information about the car and the DVLA record says that 708 HP is now a red 1995 Rover.

1954 Triumph TR2

This car was on the stand of the Triumph TR Car Club at the Northern Classic Car Show in the Belle Vue Exhibition Halls, Manchester in September 1986.

It's a 1954 Triumph TR2, one of 8,636 cars that were built between 1954 and 1955 and was powered by a tuned version of the Standard Vanguard's 4-cylinder inline 1,991cc engine.

1948 Alta

I photographed this car on a visit to the Donington Park Museum in May 1989. The museum sadly closed in November 2018, cars on loan going back to the owners and as far as I'm aware the rest were put up for auction.

It's a 1948 Alta which was raced by George Abecassis in 1948 and 1949. I've recently come across the book that I bought at the museum on one of my visits there, and this is what it has to say about the Alta:

'The Alta

Geoffrey Taylor's 'Special'

Geoffrey Taylor was an arch motoring enthusiast. He built his first Alta car in a small workshop behind his home in Kingstone-upon-Thames between 1928 and 30, painstakingly fashioning vital engine parts out of the solid. This was followed by a line of sports and independently-suspended racing cars until he outbreak of the war.

He outlined a design for a 1½ litre supercharged Grand Prix car towards the end of the war, and announced his plans with a flourish in November 1945. But post-war shortages delayed the car's debut until 1948, when 'GP No. 1' appeared in the British Empire Trophy race in Douglas, Isle of Man.

The new Alta used an updated version of Taylor's well-proven twin overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine, supercharged by a Roots-Alta blower driven from the crankshaft nose. He used a special four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox of his own construction with a low drive-line, allowing the driver's seat to be very low-mounted within a rakish and sleek bodyshell, reminiscent of the pre-war Mercedes also copied by ERA in their unsuccessful E-Type.

George Abecassis raced the car throughout 1948 and 1949, while his HW Motors partner John Heath also drove on occasions. Its best performance was in the 1949 British GP, when Abecassis ran fifth before a broken float chamber forced him to stop. He then fought his way back through the field to finish seventh.

For 1950 this duo concentrated on their own Alta-engined HWMs, while the same engine became standard in 2½ litre form in Connaught cars. Tony Brooks won the 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix in one of these Connaughts to score the first all-British Continental GP victory since 1924!

Three of the rubber-block suspended GP Altas were built; the others went to Geoffrey Crossle and Joe Kelly, and the Collection's car includes parts from all three.

Engine:4-Cyls IL; 2VPC; 2OHC; 78mm x 78mm. 1490cc; 230bhp/7000rpm; (S).

Chassis: Round tube ladder frame

Suspension: IRS/IFS by wishbones and rubber blocks.

Brakes: Drums, hydraulically-operated.'