Lagonda 2.6 Litre Drophead Coupe

This car was in the paddock at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's a 1952 Lagonda 2.6 Litre Drophead Coupe, one of 510 4-door saloon and 2-door coupe versions of the car that were produced between 1948 and 1953. At the time of its introduction the 2.6 litre was the only British car to have independent suspension, with coil springs at the front and torsion bars at the rear, and the 2,580cc straight-6 engine was the basis of the engines used to power the 1950s Aston Martin models.
This particular car was offered for sale by H&H Classic Car Auctioneers in October 2014.

Maserati 250S

This car competed in the twelve lap 1950's Sports Car Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It's Robin Lodge's 1957 Maserati 250S and was driven in the race by Nigel Corner. A note in the programme of the event reads as follows:

'Robin Lodge has entered Nigel Corner to drive his 1957 250S Maserati. The Prototype of the 250S sports cars of 1954-56 used the earlier sports A6GCS chassis fitted with a 6 cylinder 250F 2.5 litre engine giving 230 bhp instead of the 240-270 bhp of the Grand Prix 250F engines as it ran on petrol instead of alcohol. The developed 250S cars were converted from the left hand drive of the A6GCS to right hand drive and these, in turn, were developed into the 300S Maseratis by an increase in stroke, giving 245 bhp. There was a second coming of the 250S, 1957-1959 having a 196 bhp 4 cylinder engine in a shorter wheelbase chassis resulting in a lighter car. Robin Lodge's car has this later chassis with the 4 cylinder engine.'

The earlier versions of the 250S were produced by fitting the 2½ litre engine into a Maserati 150S or 200S chassis, but only two cars were originally built with a 2½ litre engine, Robin Lodge's car (chassis #2432) and chassis #2431.

This is the Maserati at Lodge Corner during the race.

1977 BMW 3.0 CSL

I photographed this car in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

There's no information about it in the programme of the event, but it's a 1977 BMW 3.0 CSL of the Belgian Luigi Racing Team, one of which finished in eighth place in the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, winning the IMSA class. The BMW 3.0 CSL was introduced in 1972 as a homologation version of the 3.0 CS, the 2,986cc of the straight-6 engine having been increased by 1977 to 3,153cc.

ERA R7B

This is one of four ERAs that took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

It's Paul Mullins in his 1936 ERA R7B pictured in the pit lane during a practice session. The car was originally built for Arthur Dobson with a supercharged 1,488cc straight-6 engine, but here was powered by the 1.980cc engine. After WW2 the car passed through various hands, Paul Mullins owning it from 2002 to 2014, but the longest ownership was that of Dudley Gahagan who looked after the car from 1960 to 1998.

Aston Martin DB3S

This car took part in the 'Pre-War Sports Cars with Feltham Aston Martins' race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in September 1992.

It's Simon Draper at Lodge Corner in his 1954 Aston Martin DB3S, chassis DB3S/7. This car has the straight-6 Lagonda 2,992cc engine and was originally built with a coupe body as part of the works Aston Martin sports car team. Peter Collins and Prince Bira shared the driving in this car in the 1954 Le Mans 24 hour race, but it was severely damaged in an accident after 13 hours when being driven by Prince Bira, who escaped with cuts and bruises. The car was rebuilt for the start of the 1955 season with an open body and for 1956 received the new nose, as seen above, then was sold off by the works at the end of that season.

Friday's Ferrari

Access to the pit garages was strictly regulated at the Ferrari Racing Days meeting at Silverstone in September 2017, but I managed to get this photograph of one of the Corse Clienti F1 Ferraris from the paddock by peering through a rack of tyres.

I find it difficult to identify accurately recent F1 Ferrari models, but this appear to be a Ferrari 150° Italia as raced in the 2011 season by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. That car was powered by the Ferrari 056 2,398cc V8 engine.

TVR

Here are photographs of four TVRs that I took at the Footman James Classic Car Show Manchester at EventCity in September 2018.

This is a 1986 TVR 420 SEAC race car and the board alongside says it has a Rover V8 dry sump alloy race engine, by V8 Developments, with stage 4 heads, big valves and solid lifters. This 5.4 litre engine produces 350bhp and the car was built and raced by Steve Cole at David Gerard. In its first year of racing in 1986 it was entered in 24 races and had 21 class wins and 19 outright race wins, but was then banned due to homologation issues. This car is one of only three to be built with a stainless steel chassis and is the only one still running with its its original chassis. The car has now been converted for road use.

This is a 2005 TVR Sagaris with a 3,996cc TVR Speed Six engine, a 6-cylinder inline alloy engine with 4 valves per cylinder and dry sump lubrication.

This car is a 1999 TVR Cerbera and has the same 3,996cc TVR Speed Six engine as the TVR Sagaris.

This car is a 2004 TVR T350T, the Targa version of the T350, and again has the 3,996cc TVR Speed Six engine.