1954 Arnolt Bristol

This car was amongst the cars displayed by the Bristol Owners' Club at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's a 1954 Arnolt Bristol, one of about 130 that were built between 1953 and 1959. The car came about after Stanley 'Wacky' Arnolt had admired an MG TD with a body designed by Giovanni Bertone at the 1952 Turin Automobile Show. Giovanni Bertone was at the show and 'Wacky' Arnolt told him that he wanted to buy 200 of the cars to sell in the USA. The cars sold well in the USA, but when MG introduced the new TF model they said that they could no longer supply the basic TD model on which the Arnolt MG was based. After a brief attempt to produce an Arnolt with an Aston Martin engine that was vetoed by Aston Martin, an arrangement was made with Bristol who agreed to supply Arnolt with the rolling chassis of the 6-cylinder inline 1,971cc Bristol 404 that Carrozzeria Bertone clothed with the new body designed by Franco Scaglione. A team of Arnolt Bristols was entered for the Sebring 12-hour races from 1955 to 1960, performing well and winning the 2-litre class in 1955 and 1960.

1991 Chevrolet Intrepid RM-1

I took this photograph at McLean's Corner during practice for the Group C/GTP Sports Car Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's Brian Devries in the 1991 Chevrolet Intrepid RM-1 that was developed for IMSA Racing which mainly took place in the USA, with a few races in Canada. The Intrepid competed in the series in 1991, 1992 and 1993, but its only victory was in the Nissan Grand Prix du Mardi on the streets of New Orleans in 1991. The car was built with a 439 cu in (7.2 litres) V8 Chevrolet engine, but the programme of the Donington Park meeting doesn't give the engine sizes of the cars in this race.

1928 Austin Gordon England Cup Special

This was one of the participants in the Lancashire Automobile Club's Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1990.

It's the 1928 Austin Gordon England Cup Special of Jim Musty and is shown here in the Exchange Station car park in Manchester before the start of the Run. The Austin 7 had a 747cc 4-cylinder inline engine and was produced from 1922 to 1939, being the most popular car in the UK and licenced as the American Austin in the USA, the Rosengart in France and was used unofficially by Nissan as the basis for their first cars, which led to them being allowed to build and sell Austins in Japan using the Austin name. Racing driver Eric Cecil Gordon England built his own lightweight body on an Austin 7 and raced it so successfully that he set up a company, Gordon England (1929) Ltd to produce the cars. The programme of the Manchester to Blackpool Run has this information about this car:

1928 Austin Gordon England Cup Special

Reg:  DS 6973  4 cylinder  7 hp

(Jim Musty, Maidenhead, Berks.)

Made by the Gordon England Coachworks in Wembley on a Seven chassis, this Special was available from 1926 to 1930, and was a successor to the famous Brooklands model. The car entered is a reproduction using one of Tom Abernathy's replica bodies.

There's a Gordon England Register Archive with lots of information about Gordon England cars.

1950 Bristol 400

This vehicle was one of those being displayed by various car clubs at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 2015.

It's a 1950 Bristol 400, one of 487 cars built between 1947 and 1950. After the Second World War the Bristol Aeroplane Company set up a car division, which later became Bristol Cars, and this was the first car they produced. AFN Ltd had reached an agreement with BMW in 1934 to import their cars, and to build and market them in the UK as Frazer Nash BMWs, and Bristol acquired a licence from Frazer Nash to base their car on the box-section frame of the BMW 326 and the engine of the BMW 328. The Bristol's engine was a slightly modified version of the 328's 6-cylinder inline 1,971cc unit, though the DVLA record says that the capacity of this car's engine is 1,951cc.

1934 Maserati 4CS

This car competed in the Pre-War Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's the 1934 Maserati 4CS of Norbert Schmitz-Koep and he shared the driving in the race with Ludwig Willisch. The Maserati 4CS was produced from 1931 to 1936 with a supercharged 1,088c engine, and from 1932 to 1936 with a lengthened chassis and a supercharged 1,498cc engine. Norbert Schmitz-Koep's car is chassis #1123 and was one of the five cars built with the smaller engine. Six cars were built with the larger engine, but in the 1980s or 90s #1123 was given one of the 1,498cc engines.

Friday's Ferrari

I took this photograph in the pit lane at the Richard Seaman memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's the engine of one of the Ferraris involved in a series of track demonstration runs by Ferrari F1 cars, and it's the 1,496cc V6 turbocharged Tipo 033A engine that powered the 1988 Ferrari F1/87/88C. The F1/87/88C was an updated version of the 1987 Ferrari F1/87, and with this car in 1988 Gerhard Berger won the Italian Grand Prix, had two second and two third place finishes, and this together with five more points-scoring efforts gave him third place in that season's Drivers' World Championship. Team mate Michele Alboreto had a second and two third place finishes and points for a series of minor place finishes enabled him to end up in fifth place in the Championship. Ferrari finished in second place in the Constructors' World Championship which was won convincingly by the McLaren Honda team, with their drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the MP4/4 finishing first and second respectively in the Drivers' World Championship, way ahead of the rest of the field.

Two Maseratis

Here's two of the cars that were in the Manchester United car park on 11 January 2020.

This car is a 2013 Maserati Quattroporte with a 3,797cc twin-turbocharged F154 V8 engine.

This car is a 2019 Maserati Levante GTS also with the 3,797cc twin-turbocharged F154 V8 engine.