1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Sport Tourer

 This car was on loan at the Donington Park museum when I paid my last visit there in September 2014.

It's a 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C Sport Tourer, and the board at the side gives a brief history of the car as shown below:

Following the closure of the museum and the return of the car to the family it seems that it was put up for auction with Bonhams who gave a much fuller history of the car.

Friday's Ferrari

 I photographed this car at the Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017.

It's a 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS and has the F105CB 3,186cc 32 valve V8 engine with twin overhead camshafts per bank. The Ferrari 328 was produced between 1985 and 1989 replacing the 308 model and was superseded by the Ferrari 348.

1959 Lotus 16

This car took part in the Allcomers Scratch Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It's the 1959 Lotus 16 of John Roberts, a car previously campaigned in historic racing by Bill Wilks. The first Grand Prix race for the Lotus 16 was the 1958 French Grand Prix where the car's 1,964cc Coventry Climax engine proved to be severely underpowered for the very fast Reims circuit and Graham Hill retired the car on lap 19 with an overheating engine. By 1959 the car was fitted with the 2,467cc Coventry Climax FPF engine, but the front-engined cars were now outclassed by the rear-engined ones and the Lotus 16 never achieved great success, the best efforts being Innes Ireland's fourth place in the Dutch Grand Prix and fifth place in the USA Grand Prix. Eight of the cars were built and John Roberts' car is Chassis 365,

 

MG C-type Montlhery

These cars took part in the 2 hour long VSCC Team Relay Race for Pre-War Sports Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

They are three 1931 MG C Type Montlhery Midgets, part of a four car team competing in the race. The MG C Type was developed from a car designed for International speed record attempts which was based on the 847cc MG M Type with a supercharged engine reduced to 743cc to try to capture speed records in the under 750cc class H. In January 1931 Captain George Eyston succeeded in setting speed records for this class with several runs at the Montlhery race track in France at over 100mph and the subsequent production MG C Type was given the tag 'Montlhery'. The silver car on the left, number 92 in the race, is that of Hamish McNinch and the programme of the event says it has a 847cc engine. In the middle, race number 91, is the 746cc car of Barry Foster, and on the right, race number 93, is Oliver Richardson's 750cc car.

Innes Ireland

This is a photograph I took with my Kodak Brownie 127 camera at Aintree in the late 1950s, but I don't remember at which meeting this was.

It's Innes Ireland, and he's standing in front of the transporter of Ecurie Ecosse, a team for which he had several drives in 1958 and 1959, sharing a drive in a Jaguar D-Type with Masten Gregory for fifth place in the 1958 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood. He started his driving career in 1954 with a Riley 9, moving on to a Lotus Eleven the following year. By 1957 in addition to his own car he was driving a Lotus Eleven for Team Lotus, and in 1959 as well as the Lotus 15 in Sports Car racing he drove a Lotus 16 for the team in several of that year's Grand Prix races. He continued driving for Team Lotus in 1960 and 1961, but at the end of the 1961 season he lost his place in the team, despite having won the last race of the season, the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. In 1961 he had also driven Aston Martins for the Essex Racing team in both Sports Car and GT racing. In 1962 Innes Ireland drove a Lotus 24 for the UDT Laystall team in Grand Prix races and also a Lotus 19 for the same team in Sports Car races, but his most notable race that season was his winning drive in the Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood which he won in UDT Laystall's Ferrari 250 GTO. In 1963 the UDT Laystall team had become the British Racing Partnership and he drove a Lotus BRM then a BRP BRM for that team in Grand Prix races in 1963 and 1964. In Sports Car racing in those two years he showed his versatility by driving Ferraris (250 GTO & 275 P), Aston Martins (DP214 & DP215), Lotus 19, Shelby Cobra, Porsche 904 and Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. In 1965 and 1966 Grand Prix races he drove a Lotus for Reg Parnell Racing and then a BRM for Bernard White Racing, but continued to drive a varied selection of cars in Sports Car racing. He was always a very popular driver and in his later years became president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, but sadly died from cancer in 1993 at the age of 63.

1953 Bristol 404 Drophead Coupé

This was one of the cars displayed in the paddock by the Bristol Owners Club at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

I've seen photographs describing it as a 1953 Bristol 404 Drophead Coupé with body by Abbott of Farnham. The Bristol 404 was produced from 1953 to 1958 alongside (from 1955 to 1958) the Bristol 405, 52 examples of the 404 being made, all of them supposedly two-door fastback coupé models. The 405 had a longer wheelbase than the 404 and 308 of these were produced, mostly as a four-door saloon, but 43 were two-door drophead coupés with bodies by Abbott of Farnham. Both the Bristol 404 and 405 had the 6-cylinder inline 1,971cc engine, though some of the later 405s had a larger 2,216cc unit.

1937 Maserati 6CM

This car took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

It's the 1937 Maserati 6CM of Ray Fielding with a supercharged 6-cylinder inline 1,493cc engine. It is chassis 1540 and was at one time part of the Doune Motor Museum collection.