Friday's Ferrari

This car competed in the Coppa Shell Ferrari Challenge race at the Corse Cliente Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017.

It's the Ferrari 488 Challenge of Canadian driver Rick Lovat and has a 670hp turbocharged 3,902cc V8 engine developed from that of the Ferrari 488 GTB.

1952 Jason 500cc F3

This car competed in the 500cc Formula 3 class alongside Formula Junior cars in the Historic Formula Junior Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in September 1992.

It's Roy Hunt's 1952 Jason F3 car, and it seems to be the only one ever made. It was built by Godfrey Messervy between July and November 1952, the name being taken from the initials of the months July, August, September, October and November. It has a conventional four tube chassis with double wishbone suspension at the front, and swing axle with rubber bands at the rear though this was very soon supplemented with coil springs. The original engine was a Triumph with twin plugs and fuel injection. Godfrey Messervy drove the car at a few race meetings, but had to give up his racing exploits due to business commitments - later becoming chairman of Lucas and president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and going on to receive a Knighthood. The car disappeared until the 1980s when it received a JAP engine and gave a good account of itself in continental historic racing events, then was acquired by Roy Hunt in 1989. One oddity about the car is the bulge towards the nose of the car just above the racing number, and a groove leading up towards the driver. The bulge contains the rev counter and the groove is to enable to driver to see it.

1933 MG KN Special

This car is pictured at McLean's Corner during a practice session for the VSCC Historic Seaman Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's Anne Templeton in her 1933 MG KN Special which is based on the running gear of the 6-cylinder inline 1,271cc MG KN Magnette, but has a 1,500cc engine and a zoller supercharger. The car behind is another MG, the MG Q Type of Tom Dark which has a supercharged 850cc engine. Only 8 examples of this car were built  and this one seems to be the only one with this type of body. It appears to be the car that was driven in the 1930s at Brooklands by Doreen Evans where she lapped the outer circuit at over 114 mph.

Note 25 Aug 2020: I've been told that Tom Dark's car isn't the one that Doreen Evans used to drive, but I couldn't find any contemporary photos o that car.

1954 Kurtis 500S

This car took part in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

Frank Kurtis is probably better known for his cars that ran in the Indianapolis 500 race in the 1950s,  winning of five occasions, but he also built the small engined (by American standards) cars that dominated American midget car racing which took place round a ¼ mile or ½ mile oval track. He also built the Kurtis roadsters that were basically Indianapolis 500 cars with a two seater body and these were very successful in the USA, particularly on the winding circuits of the West Coast where they frequently beat the more sophisticated imported European cars. The Kurtis 500S was powered by a variety of American V8 engines, most frequently a 331 cu in Cadillac unit, but the programme of this Silverstone event doesn't identify the make of engine, just that the capacity is 4,900cc which is about 300 cu in. It was entered for the race by Don Shead and driven by James Shead.

Masten Gregory

I took this photograph during practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1959.

Masten Gregory was born in Kansas City, Missouri and began his racing career in 1953 in SCCA racing in the USA. In 1954 he bought a Ferrari 375MM and brought it to Europe and had a promising season, including a win in the Daily Telegraph International race at Aintree. In 1957 he and Luigi Musso won the Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometre race in a Temple Buell Ferrari 290MM, and he also took part in Formula One racing for the first time in a Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati 250F. He actually finished in third position in his first race in that car, the Monaco Grand Prix, and ended the season in sixth place in the World Drivers Championship, and though he continued to race in Formula One till 1965 that turned out to be his best finishing position in the World Championship. He never won a World Championship Grand Prix and his best result was a second place in the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix in a Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper T51 Maserati. He had more success in Sports Car racing with wins in the 1961 Nürburgring 1000 Kilometre race with Lucky Casner in a Camoradi Maserati Tipo 61, and the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hour race with Jochen Rindt and Ed Hugus in a North American Racing Team Ferrari 250LM. That remains the last occasion on which the race was won by a Ferrari. Masten Gregory survived several crashes in he career as a racing driver, but died of a heart attack on 8 November 1985 when only 53 years old.

1922 Diatto 20

This car competed in a scratch race and a handicap race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's the 1922 Diatto 2 litre of Bill Summers, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it has a 1,991cc engine. It appears to be a Diatto 20 with a single overhead camshaft 4-cylinder inline engine.

1957 Vanwall 'Streamliner'

I took this photograph in a dark corner of the Donington Park museum in March 1996 before the later alterations which provided a proper display for the Vanwall Grand Prix cars.

It's the 1957 Vanwall F1 car with the streamlined body that never actually raced. The Vanwall of 1956-58 was designed by Colin Chapman and the body by Frank Costin, and it used the Vanwall engine designed by Norton engineer Leo Kuzmicki which was basically an enlarged version of four single-cylinder 498cc Norton engines joined together. The streamlined body was taken to the high-speed Reims circuit (a triangular five-mile road circuit with just two sharp corners and a couple of long sweeping curves) in July of 1957 for the non-championship Reims Grand Prix for evaluation. Regular drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were unavailable and Roy Salvadori and Stuart Lewis-Evans were drafted in for the race. Both drivers tried the streamlined car in practice, but it proved no faster than the normal one, which both drivers preferred to use in the race.