1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost

This is a photograph I took before the start of the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1973.

It's the 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost of Kenneth Neve and the programme of the event had this note about the vehicle:

'35. Mr Kenneth Neve, Aston-by-Budworth, Cheshire

       1911 Rolls-Royce "London-Edinburgh" Silver Ghost, 45 h.p.

In 1911 Rolls-Royce won a Challenge from Napier. The late Lord Hives, at that time Mr. Hives and the company's chief tester, drove a Silver Ghost with underslung cantilever rear springs, enlarged carburettor and higher compression ratio from London to Edinburgh in top gear. The journey was completed at a fuel consumption of 24.3 m.p.g. and then to prove that the axle ratio was not absurd, the car was taken to Brooklands where it clocked 78.3 m.p.h. Thus did the first sporting Rolls-Royce get the name "Type London-Edinburgh", and R1075 was the car that made the historic journey. In 1963 Mr. Kenneth Neve recognised a dejected chassis in Hampshire for what it was. Now, some 5,000 working hours later, the first "London-Edinburgh" is just as it might have been seen more than 60 years ago, serenely whispering its way on the Great North Road in top gear and heading for the Scottish capital.'

Kenneth Neve was at one time President of the Vintage Sports Car Club.

1937 Mercedes-Benz W125

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1972. 

It's the 5,663cc straight-8 supercharged 1937 Mercedes-Benz W125 with which Colin Crabbe took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race and which he won later that day. Rescued by Colin Crabbe from East Germany in the 1960s, it's the only Mercedes-Benz W125 in private hands and was subsequently owned by Neil Corner and Bernie Ecclestone.

1953 Tojeiro Bristol

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting of July 1998 marked 50 years of motor racing at Silverstone and there was a display of cars marking each of those years.

This is the Tojeiro Bristol of Jeremy Agace which represented the year 1953. In the 1950s Cliff Davies, a London car dealer and enthusiastic club racing driver, asked John Tojeiro to provide him with a chassis into which he could fit a 2 litre Bristol engine. This chassis was given an aluminium body which was very similar in style to the 'Barchetta' bodies which had been popularised by Ferrari, and the car pictured above was the result. It's the car that John Tojeiro showed to the directors of AC Cars Ltd in Thames Ditton who were so impressed that they used the design as the basis for the AC Ace, which later evolved into the AC Cobra.

1955 Connaught B-Type

This is a photograph that I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1955 Connaught B-Type, chassis B7, and the book 'Great Racing Car of the Donington Collection' says this about it:

The non-Championship Syracuse Grand Prix, held in Sicily late in 1955, forms an historic landmark in racing history. The amateur driver C.A.S. 'Tony' Brooks took on the might of the works Maserati team in his unrated 2½ litre Alta-engined Connaught, and beat them on their home soil!  It was the first time that a Continental 'Grand Prix' had been won by a British car and driver since Henry Seagrave had won the San Sebastian in a Sunbeam in 1924. Rodney Clarke and Kenneth McAlpine (of the famous building family) had founded Connaught Engineering in 1947, to build a sports car for McAlpine to race. In a small works at Send in Surrey, they built a prototype powered by a modified 1767cc Lea-Francis engine, and its results prompted a production batch of the cars, financed by McAlpine.

Engineer Mike Oliver drove one of the cars successfully, and in 1950 he assisted in building a prototype Formula 2 Connaught, using the existing engine in a modified form. For 1951 nine F2 cars were built with Connaught 1864cc engines - still 'Leaf'-based but now developed almost beyond recognition as such. Between 1952 and 1953 the Connaughts never achieved major success; they lacked power although their road-holding and handling were as good as any.

The B-Type Connaught was prepared for 1954 Formula 1 racing with a special 2½ litre  four-cylinder Alta engine and initially all-enveloping streamlined central-seat bodywork. This was replaced for practical rather than technical reasons by a more normal 'slipper' body and it was one of these cars which made history in 1955.

During 1956 Connaught were a force in Grand Prix racing, but success - and real power - still eluded them. A C-Type car of advanced design was laid down for 1957, but McAlpine decided that the financial strain was too much to be borne alone and, when outside sponsorship was not forthcoming, he withdrew, and Connaught tragically collapsed.

1952 Cooper Bristol

This car is making its way through a typically wet Oulton Park paddock to take part in a practice session for the Allcomers Race for Historic Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

It's the 1952 Cooper Bristol MkI of John Roberts which 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.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1959 Ferrari Dino196S of Kerry Manolas which has a 1,984cc V6 engine and is chassis #0776S. It's the only example of this model produced and was originally owned by Luigi Chinetti, for whom the Rodriguez brothers Pedro and Ricardo drove the car in the 12 Hours of Sebring Race, the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring 1000km Race in 1960. They were 7th in the Targa Florio but failed to finish the other two races. It was driven in the race by Spencer Martin.

1956 Leyland Titan PD2

This was one of the vehicles that turned up at a small motoring meet at the top of Werneth Low in Hyde in July 1991.

It's a 1956 ex Portsmouth Corporation Leyland PD2/12 with MCW body. Originally with a closed top and fleet No 106, it was converted to open top for the sea front service from Clarence Pier to Hayling Ferry.