Friday's Ferrari

Here are two old photographs I've come across taken with my Brownie 127 camera during the Friday practice session at the 1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

This is Phil Hill's Ferrari Dino 156 (serial number 0003 61) which finished second in the race to Wolfgang von Trips' identical car whilst Richie Ginther was third in the third Ferrari team car. Phil Hill ended the season as World Champion though.

Four Ferraris were entered in this race, this being the car of Giancarlo Baghetti who had won the French Grand Prix two weeks earlier in his first World Championship race. No such luck in this race, however, as he retired following an accident after 27 of the 75 laps. The serial number of this car is 0002 61.

Bentley Jackson Special 'Old Mother Gun'

On 26th August 1996 the VSCC hosted a race meeting at Oulton Park which was, as the front page of the programme shows below, a 'Race Meeting dedicated to the Memory of Sir Henry Seagrave'.

One of the cars taking part in the ten lap scratch race in memory of Sir Henry Seagrave was the car below.

Shown in the programme simply as a 1930 Bentley Special with a 6648cc capacity engine it is, in fact, the Bentley Jackson Special more commonly known as 'Old Mother Gun' which has a very interesting history, as the extract below from www.ultimatecarpage.com tells us:

'Originally constructed in 1927, serial number ST-3001 was one of the Bentley works-prepared racers for the 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the end of its illustrous career, over 2 decades later, it didn't look anything like it did in 1927. After being rebodied, technically modfied and nicknamed, ST-3001, Jackson Special or Mother Gun remains as one of the best known 'specials'.

Fitted with a four cylinder engine displacing almost 4.4 litre, it was forced to retire in the 1927 Le Mans race after a multiple car shunt. Bentley reconstructed it to campaign at Le Mans the next year. Carefully piloted by Woolf Bernato and Bernard Rubin, it took the overall victory, covering almost 2700 km. It was Woolf Bernato who gave ST-3001 a nickname that stuck, 'Mother Gun'. It was raced once more at Le Mans the next year and finished second behind the winning 6 cylinder engined Bentley. After being campaigned for two more years, it was sold by the works to Richard Marker in 1932.

Marker wasted no time and revised Mother Gun to race at the high-speed Brooklands track. Further modifications were carried through in 1934, as a remaining 6.5 litre 'Speed Six' engine was fitted. Multiple successes were scored by Marker and Margaret Allan at Brooklands and other tracks before 'Old Mother Gun' changed hands again in 1936.

Like the previous owner, Mother Gun's new owner, Robin Jackson, set out to revise ST-3001 to suit his needs. It took Jackson a year to completely revise the chassis, fit a single-seater body and fit new pistons and conrods. In its new guise, the 'Jackson Special' as it was now officially named, reminded of a lot of things but certainly not of the 1928 Le Mans winner. In this shape it still has today it recorded a best lap at Brooklands with an average of a little over 217 km/h. Mother Gun finally retired in 1948 after it was used in a number of speed trials in 1947 and 1948.

 Today it is campaigned by Bentley expert, Stanley Mann, in historic races across Europe. It was he who carried through a thorough restoration in 1989, to restore the Jackson Special to its 1939 form. Like it did in the late 1930s the Jackson Special was out breaking records again shortly after its restoration. In 1992 it covered 1000 miles with an average of just over 100 mph at 168 km/h.'

The race programme shows the owner of the car in 1996 to be Vaughan Davis and the car was driven by Stanley Mann, shown in this photograph at Druids Corner.

Fiat 8V

I remember seeing a photograph and reading about the Fiat 8V in an 'Observer's Book of the Automobile' in the mid-1950s, but I'd never seen one until I went to the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004. The car shown below was amongst the vehicles being displayed by the auctioneers Coys.

I've been through all the Fiat 8Vs pictured in Google Images but this particular car isn't shown, unless it's been re-painted in another colour at some point.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car which appeared in the Allcomers Invitation Race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992. It was entered by Anthony Mayman and driven in the race by John Harper.

The car was shown in the programme as a 1952 Ferrari with an engine capacity of 2496cc

First owned by Frenchman Louis Rosier, hence the blue colour, it was originally a 2 litre1952 Ferrari 500, shown in www.barchetta.cc to be serial number 0186F2

The car was fitted with a 625 engine in 1954 and in one of www.slotforum.com's forums it says:

'Rosier's 500 had a 625 engine that year, for the new 2.5-litre F1, so it was often described as a 500/625.'

I understand that the chassis had to be lengthened to accommodate the larger engine

Maserati 250F

Three Maserati 250Fs took part in the Flockhart Trophy race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 and here is David Wenman's 1957 model being prepared in the paddock prior to the race.

I've been through the list of Maserati 250F serial numbers in the barchetta.cc website but I can't see which of the cars this one is.

Here's the car, driven by Tony Stephens, in the pit lane going on a practice run

During the race here's Tony Stephens following Brandon Smith-Hilliard's 250F, also a 1957 model, at McLean's corner.

Birthday Present

I don't get to see my friend Debbi very frequently and consequently Birthday and Christmas presents can be somewhat belated. This is part of Debbi's Birthday present to me which I received yesterday:

It's a mouse mat featuring grandson Edward so that I can look at his cheeky little face every time I use my computer. Thank you very much, Debbi, how thoughtful of you!

Friday's Ferrari

Another of the Ferraris in the Donington Grand Prix Collection in 1989 was the Ferrari 375 which Tony Vandervell ran in 1951 with a 4½ litre engine using his own thinwall bearings and known as the Thin Wall Special. The Ferrari serial number is 010. This is what it says about the Thin Wall Special in http://8w.forix.com/thinwall.html:

'Guy Anthony Vandervell had ordered a Ferrari Tipo 125 Grand Prix car to be used to prepare the team for the upcoming BRM car. The initially delivered Tipo 125 had a 1.5 liter supercharged V-12 and was raced by Raymond Mays and Ken Richardson in the 1949 International Trophy race. The car carried the “Thinwall Special”, named for Vandervell's bearing company. The car proved a handful and was crashed by Richardson. Vandervell returned the car to Ferrari and took delivery of a second Tipo 125. This car was driven by Alberto Ascari in the 1950 International Trophy race. Ascari spun in the rain and failed to finish. Vandervell again returned the car to Ferrari, who rebuilt the car and added a 4.5 liter unsupercharged V-12 engine. This car ran for the first time with Reg Parnell driving at the 1951 International Trophy race at Silverstone. Parnell managed to finish second in his first heat race.'

This is a photograph of the car taken in May 1989

This photograph was taken in October 1989