1950 BRM P15

I took this photograph at the now defunct Donington Park Museum in March 1996.

It's a 1950 BRM P15, originally known as a BRM V16 MkI, and is chassis no. 3. It's got the light green finish that was first favoured but which was later changed to a much darker shade of green. The P15 had a supercharged 1,496cc V16 engine which was claimed to achieve 600bhp. It was notably unsuccessful in the 1950 and 1951 racing seasons, retiring from many races, but just when the Mk2 (P30) cars were starting to become more reliable the Grand Prix regulations were changed from 4½ litres unsupercharged/1½ litres supercharged to 2 litres unsupercharged for the 1952 season, thus rendering the cars obsolete. They were driven in Formula Libre races for a few years, and the only time I saw one in competitive action was in the Formula Libre race at the 1955 Aintree 200 meeting when Peter Collins won the race in P30/2.

1960 OSCA FJ

This car took part in the Miller Oils/ AMOC Historic Formula Junior race at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

Numbered 21 in the programme of the event, it's the 1960 OSCA Formula Junior car of Peter Mullen and has a 4-cylinder inline Fiat 1,098cc engine. The OSCA company was established by the Maserati brothers at the end of their 10 year contract with Adolfo Orsi, to whom they had sold the Maserati concern in 1937. Formula Junior racing was initiated in 1958 by Giovanni Lurani as an affordable introduction to single seater racing and was initially dominated by the Fiat-engined Italian cars, particularly Stanguellini. British interest remained for some time with the 500cc Formula 3 class of racing, but when they turned their attention to Formula Junior cars such as Elva and Lola started to make an impression, and when Cooper and Lotus introduced their mid-engined cars they became the ones to beat.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the Aston Martin GT Challenge race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017.

It's a 2009 Ferrari F430 Challenge, seen here in the scrutineering bay.

It was driven in the 50 minute long race by Richard Cook and Harvey Stanley.

The Ferrari F430 Challenge, which has a 4,308cc V8 engine, replaced the 360 Challenge and was produced from 2007 to 2001, being succeeded by the 458 Challenge.

Here's the car at Old Hall Corner during the early morning qualifying session.

During the race I walked to several different parts of the circuit, and this photograph was taken at Druids Corner.....

.....and here just about to enter Knickerbrook corner.

1921 Humber 11.4 Coupé

This was one of the participants in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in May 1992 and is pictured in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the run.

It's a 1921 Humber 11.4 Coupé, also known as a Doctors Coupé, and the only information about it in the programme of the event is that it was entered by Brian Gore of Tandle Mills, Royton. It should have a 4-cylinder inline 1,743cc engine which gives 11.4hp.

1959 Elva Courier

Photographs of two 1959 Elva Couriers here that I took at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

This is an early morning (8.35am) photo of Paul Andrew's 1959 Elva Courier in the scrutineering bay, Around 400 of the MkI and MkII Courier were built between 1958 and 1961 when the company went into voluntary liquidation, the MkI cars having 1500cc MGA or Riley engines, and the MkII cars the 1600cc MGA engines. The programme of the event shows this car to have a 1500cc engine.

I took this photograph in the paddock a little later in the morning.

The car was due to race in the Equipe Pre '63 race and here it is at Druids Corner during the morning qualifying session being driven (according to the results sheet) by Tom Andrew, who also drove the car in the race.....

.....and here's the car at Britten's chicane during the afternoon race leading the 1961 Austin Healey 3000 of Mike Thorne.

This is the other Elva Courier I photographed, Tom Andrew's 1959 Elva Courier, also with a 1500cc engine, which was listed in the programme as being a reserve for the Equipe GTS race, but doesn't appear on the results sheet.

1953 Cooper Bristol T23

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 - originally known as the Cooper Bristol MkII - of John Beasley. The car has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.

Behind the Cooper Bristol is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.

1956 Maserati 250F

The featured marque at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was Maserati with particular emphasis on the 250F and twelve of these cars are listed in the Celebration Maserati Invitation Race with a further four being shown as static display or track demonstration cars. This is one of the cars returning to the paddock after a practice session.

It's Stefan Rettenmaier's 1956 Maserati 250F, chassis 2520, and was driven for the Maserati team by José Froilán Gonzales in the Argentine Grand Prix in January of 1956 and by Pablo Gulle in the Buenos Aires City Grand Prix two weeks later. It was then sold to Australian Stan Jones (father of later World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones) who raced the car 'down under' with considerable success during the rest of the 1950s. In 1963 it was brought to the UK by Colin Crabbe and it passed through various other hands before spending some time in the private collection of Giulio Dubbini in Padova until it was acquired by Stefan Rettenmaier.