1929 Riley Brooklands

This car took part in two races at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011, including the two hour long VSCC Team Relay Race for Pre-war Sports Cars.

It's David Lamb's 1929 Riley Brooklands with a tuned version of the Riley Nine's 1,087cc 4-cylinder inline engine. The Riley Nine was designed by two of the Riley brothers, Percy and Stanley, and the Brooklands was the work of John G Parry Thomas and Reid Railton who shortened the chassis by some 15 inches and fitted an undershield the full length of the car. The engine had high compression pistons, special camshafts and 2 carburettors, increasing its output to 50bhp.

1958 Leyland Titan PD2/34

This was one of the entrants in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1995.

It's a 1958 Leyland Titan PD2/34 with a Burlingham H64R body, originally part of the Manchester Corporation Transport fleet, and is now part of the collection of the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester. A note in the programme of the event says this about the vehicle:

Leyland PD2/34, Burlingham H64R, 1958                                           TNA520

Entered by         J Crankshaw, Meltham, Huddersfield

This vehicle is unusual in that it originally entered service with a fully automatic gearbox. It was later converted to semi-automatic, which is itself unusual.

1953 HWM Jaguar

I photographed this car in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995, but it does not appear to have taken part in any race at this meeting.

It's a 1953 HWM Jaguar - there was an HWM Jaguar in the 1950s Sports Car Race here, but it was a 1957 car driven by Douglas Jamieson. YPG 3 did compete in the 1992 meeting at Silverstone where it was driven by Clive Rides. John Heath and George Abecassis, partners at Hersham and Walton Motors, had built Alta powered cars which they raced in the 1948 and 1949 seasons, then for the 1950 season they built three Alta powered cars that could be adapted to race in both Formula 2 and sports car events and with which they could spend the season travelling from race to race on the continent. That season they took part in 20 international events over 27 weeks commuting backwards and forwards to run their garage whilst the team took the cars to the next meeting and prepared them for racing. Other drivers were taken on to drive the third car, including a 20 year old Stirling Moss who had previously only raced a 500cc F3 Cooper. Despite their lack of power compared to the other cars they enjoyed a relatively successful season. For the 1951 season the HWMs became proper F2 single seaters and they continued their European exploits over the next three years with the help of drivers such as Peter Collins, Harry Schell and Paul Frère. In 1953 John Heath and George Abecassis fitted a Jaguar engine to a modified HWM F2 chassis and gave it an all-enveloping two-seater body to compete in sports car racing. Originally given the registration number HWM 1 it was later given the number YPG 3 and is the car shown in the photograph above. This car was driven by George Abecassis in the 1954 Mille Miglia race but failed to finish - his co-driver was motoring journalist Denis Jenkinson, who was co-driver for Stirling Moss in the winning Mercedes-Benz 300SLR the following year. Several more sports car were built by HWM, some of which are still active in historic racing, but the HWM team lost most of its impetus with the death of John Heath in the 1956 Mille Miglia.

Frazer Nash, Oulton Park 1973

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting in June 1973.

On the left is the 1936 Frazer Nash BMW of R Newton which competed in a race for Vintage PVT and Pre-war Historic Racing Cars.. The Frazer Nash BMW 319 of that period had a 6-cylinder inline 1,911cc engine, though the programme of this event says the engine capacity of this car was 1,960cc. To the right of that car is a 1952 Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica which has a 6-cylinder inline 1,971cc engine based on that of the BMW 328. This car is chassis 421/100/164 and its original owner was Col. Hal O'Hara Moore. It has the chassis from 421/100/152 which was wrecked in an accident in 1951 and its competition history reads as follows: 

Rallye Soleil Cannes 1952 - Winner; Rallye Soleil Cannes 1953, 1954; Tulip Rally 1952, 1953, 1954; Liege-Rome-Liege 1952 - DNF; RAC Rally 1952, 1954

1960 Lotus 18

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in May 1989.

It's a 1960 Lotus 18 that Stirling Moss, driving for Rob Walker's team, campaigned in 1960 the last year of the 2½ litre Formula, and in 1961 the first year of the 1½ litre Formula. In 1960 the car had a 2,497cc 4-cylinder inline Coventry Climax FPF engine and Stirling Moss won the Monaco Grand Prix, and also the last Grand Prix of the season in the USA. In 1961 the 1,500cc version of the FPF engine was used, and this is what the 'Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection' book says about that season:

'Ferrari were well-prepared for the start of the new Formula with their F2-based V6 engines and true to form they dominated the 1961 season and won the Constructors’ Championship. Only one man and one car surpassed the Ferraris during the year, and that was the incomparable Stirling Moss doing his best at the wheel of Walker’s underpowered and now obsolete Lotus 18. He scored classic victories  in the Monaco and German GPs on the two most testing circuits in the series. Of Monaco he wrote:

“I said to myself: Well I may only have 80 per cent of the Ferrari’s power behind me, but let’s make them go; make them go the whole race…. When I had finished I could not recall any point in 90 or so of the 100 laps where I had taken a corner at less than my limit or had braked earlier for it than I could….”.

At the Nürburgring he gambled on using Dunlop D12 wet-weather tyres on a partially damp track, and the gamble paid off. By this time the Walker 18 had been modified with more streamlined ‘type 21’ bodywork and revised rear suspension, and at the close of the season Walker had Moss driving another 18/21 fitted with the new Coventry-Climax V8 engine.'

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the Maserati UK Race for Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1952 Ferrari 625 of David Vine, a car that was originally a Formula Two Ferrari 500 with a 4-cylinder inline 1,984cc engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi, and competed in World Championship races in 1952 and 1953 when they were run to Formula 2 regulations. It was an Ecurie Francorchamps car, chassis 0208F, and after being in an accident at the end of 1953 it was rebuilt as a 625 with a lengthened chassis and a 2,498cc version of the Lampredi engine to contest the 2½ litre Formula One starting in 1954. At the same time it was given a new chassis number, 0540. In 1955 it was acquired by Alfonso de Portago who competed in a couple of non-World Championship Grands Prix then was injured in a crash during practice for the International Trophy Race at Silverstone and then sold the car. It then passed through various hands before ending up with David Vine in 1998.

Although the car has Maurice Trintinant's name on the side it is not the Ferrari 625 with which he won the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix.

Supermarine Seafire Mk XVII

These photographs were taken at the Air Display at the  Yorkshire Air Museum at RAF Elvington on a damp and overcast day in July 2010.

It's a Supermarine Seafire Mk XVII, which was the naval development of the Spitfire. SX336 (G-KASX) was built by Westland Aircraft in 1946 and served with various units in the Royal Navy before it was scrapped in 1955. It was recovered in the 1970s as a bare fuselage and after a few owners, went to Tim Manna of Kennet Aviation to finish the restoration, taking to the air for the first time since restoration in 2006.