1955 Bristol 450

This was amongst the cars displayed in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the sole surviving example of the three Bristol 450S cars that were built primarily to contest the Le Mans 24 Hour race, in which they competed with three different body styles in 1953, 1954 and 1955. The cars ran in the under 2 litre class and were powered by the 1,971cc straight-6 Bristol engine derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. The 1953 car had a coupé body with an unusual looking nose which had two headlamps, two spotlights, and a series of air intakes including a strange series of slats in the bodywork where the grille of the car would normally be. The rear of the car was swept back with a fin on either side of the rear window. Two cars were entered for the 1953 Le Mans race but both retired before the race was half way through. For the 1954 race the body was altered, retaining the rear end of the 1953 car, but having the new nose as seen on the 1955 car in the above photograph. Three cars were entered at Le Mans and they finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the overall positions, and first, second and third in the 2 litre class. In 1955 the cars were given the open body as seen above, and again finished seventh, eighth and ninth overall, and in the first three places in the 2 litre class. After that race Bristol withdrew from racing, in part because of the terrible accident there, and the best parts of the three cars were used to build one car, the rest being scrapped. The owner of Bristol Cars, Tony Crook, kept the car until 1992 when he sold it to Simon Draper who took it along to several historic race meetings to sit alongside the cars of other members of the Bristol Owners' Club, but the only time I saw it actually compete was at the Coys meeting at Silverstone in 1993 where it was driven by Stephen Archer.

1975 Brabham Cosworth BT44B

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

This is the 1975 Brabham BT44B, designed by Gordon Murray and powered by the 2,993cc V8 Ford Cosworth DFV engine, with which the Brabham team contested the 1975 season. Carlos Reutemann won the German Grand Prix, and with two second place finishes, three third places and two fourth places he finished in third place in the World Drivers' Championship that was won by Niki Lauda. Carlos Pace won the Brazilian Grand Prix, and that and a series of minor placings gave him sixth place in the Championship. Brabham finished in second place to Ferrari in the World Constructors' Championship.

1954 Maserati 250F

I took this photograph during the Allcomers Scratch Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1974.

It's Ray Fielding in his 1954 Maserati 250F, originally a 1952 A6GCM serial number 2038 with a 6-cylinder 1,987cc engine that was a works car in 1952 and acquired the following season by Swiss driver Baron Emanuel (better known as 'Toulo') de Graffenried. Early in 1954 the car was given a 6-cylinder 2,490cc Maserati 250F engine and a new identity as chassis 2503. Toulo de Graffenried raced the car in 1954 before selling it to Australian Reg Hunt who took it 'down under' and raced it in Australia and New Zealand before selling it to Kevin Neal when he acquired Maserati 250F chassis 2516. In 1965 2038/2503 went to the UK and was campaigned by Colin Crabbe and Dan Marguiles, then to Ray Fielding before ending up in a private Swiss collection.

1949 Austin FX3 Taxicab

 This is one of the vehicles I photographed on a visit to the Pallot Museum in Jersey in May 2013.

It's an Austin FX3 Taxicab, and judging by the Jersey registration number it's a 1949 model. The FX3 was produced from 1948 to 1958 and the coachwork on the Austin chassis was built by Carbodies of Coventry. It originally had the 2,199cc ohv petrol engine from the Austin 16, but because the petrol engined car proved expensive to run later models were given a diesel engine.

1948 Alfa Romeo 158

This car competed in the Magneti Marelli UK Race for Pre-1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's the 1948 Alfa Romeo 158 of Carlos Monteverde and was driven in the race by Willie Green. The Alfa Romeo 158 was originally designed in 1938 to compete in the pre-war Voiturette class of racing and has a 1,479cc supercharged straight-8 engine. A note in the Silverstone programme said this:

'The final two seasons of pre-war voiturette racing were dominated by Alfa Romeo's Tipo 158, a scaled-down version of one of its GP designs. Whenever it ran it won, leaving the Maserati and ERA opposition to fight over the pickings. Alfa carried on in the 1940s where it had left off before the war, for the 'Alfetta', as it was known, now complied with the new Grand Prix regulations. It retired in one 1946 race, but from then on was unbeatable until, famously, an unblown 4.5 litre Ferrari dealt the death blow here at Silverstone in 1951.'

This is the only Alfa Romeo 158/159 in private hands, and it was given by Alfa Romeo to Michel Poberejsky (who had raced under the name Mike Sparken) in exchange for the ex-Lord Doune 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Le Mans Berlinetta that had competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race that year. Michel Poberejsky later sold the car to Carlos Monteverde, and it has since been purchased by Carlo Voegele.

Three each of the Alfa Romeo 158 and 159 cars still exist, and this one is chassis 158.107 and has engine 159.227 - the others are as follows:

158

Chassis 158.005 on display in the Alfa Romeo Museum at Arese with engine 158.102.

Chassis 158.109 on display in the Biscaretti Museum, Turin.

159

Chassis 159.109 on display in the Alfa Romeo Museum as a chassis without bodywork, with engine 159.211.

Chassis 159.111 on display in Alfa Romeo Museum.

Chassis 159.112 on display in Alfa Romeo Museum and used in events.

Friday's Ferrari

I photographed this car at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2017 from Knickerbrook when it was a fair distance away on the other side of the track.

It's a 1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GT with a 2,419cc V6 engine, 3,761 of which were produced between 1969 and 1974. Three series of the Dino 246 GT were produced, all the chassis being even numbered, series 1 from 1969 to 1970 - a total of 357 cars the chassis numbers being 00400 to 01116, series 2 from 1970 to 1971 - a total of 506 cars with chassis numbers 01118 to 02130, and series 3 from 1971 to 1974 - a total of 1624 cars with chassis numbers in the range 02132 to 07650. Ferrari also produced 1274 Spyder versions of the car between 1972 and 1974 with chassis numbers in the range 02174 to 08518.

1955 Lotus Mk X

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

It's the 1955 Lotus Mk X of Adrian Hall which has a 6-cylinder 1,971cc Bristol engine. Six or seven examples of the Lotus Mk X were built, and it is very similar to the Mk VIII but modified to take the larger Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328. The body of the car was designed by Frank Costin, brother of Mike Costin, who together with Keith Duckworth founded Cosworth Engineering. The programme of the event says that the car is red, and I have a photograph of the car I took the following year when it was red with a white stripe across the body just above where the number '6' is here, so it looks as if the painting of the car took place later than was anticipated.