1935 SS 2

I photographed this car at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex exhibition centre in Manchester in August 1990 and the only note I made about it at the time was that it was an SS 2.

William Lyons' Swallow Coachbuilding Company first started making the SS 1 and SS 2 cars in 1932, the name of the company being changed to SS Cars Ltd in 1934, and again to SS Jaguar in late 1935 -  the 'SS' being dropped in 1945 for obvious reasons. The SS 2 was produced until 1940, first with a  4-cylinder inline 1,006cc engine, changed after 1934 to 1,343cc or 1,608cc. The DVLA record shows that AAR 451 was last taxed in 1990 and has a 1,479cc engine.

1958 Lister Jaguar

I took this photograph at Britten's chicane during the 50's Sports Car Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

Leading is Stephen Gibson in his 1958 Lister Jaguar with Rupert Whyte in his 1958 Lotus Eleven behind him. Next is Barry Cannell in his 1956/57 Willment Climax followed by what may be Tim Llewellyn's 1956 Tojeiro Jaguar, and bringing up the rear is the 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail of Adrian van der Kroft.

1954 BRM P30

This car is at Luffield Corner competing in the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's the 1954 BRM P30, the Mk2 version of the original V16 BRM P15. The Mk2 was shortened and lightened, but had the same 1,496cc V16 supercharged engine which was claimed to produce 600bhp at 12,000rpm. This car is chassis V16/04 (or V16 Mk2 No.1) and is being driven by Nick Mason who owned it at that time, but it's now part of Bernie Ecclestone's large collection of rare Grand Prix cars.

Old Hairpin, Donington Park

This is a photograph I took from the straight between McLean's Corner and Coppice Corner of the field rounding Old Hairpin Corner on the first lap of the Pre-1961 Sports & GT Cars Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

The two leading cars are an Austin Healey and a Lotus Elite, and as far as I can make out the 12 cars in the photograph are:

44  1955 Austin Healey 100M, Michael Thorne

59  1960 Lotus Elite, Robin Longden

7    1959 Lotus Elite, Brian Arculus

98  1955 Austin Healey 100M, Mark Pangborn

97  1954 AC Ace, Mark Morgan

49  1957 Aston Martin DB MkIII, Jon Gross

18  1955 Austin Healey 100M, Robert Rawe

5    1957 AC Ace, Andy Shepherd

65  1951 Bristol 401 ‘Mitchell Special’, Andrew Mitchell

47  1959 Aston Martin DB MkIII, Simon Jefferies

48  1955 Aston Martin DB2/4, James Campbell

85  1948 Frazer Nash High Speed, Ned Spieker

1971 Surtees TS8

I photographed this car at Lodge Corner competing in the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy race during the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2005.

It's the 1971 Surtees TS8 Formula 5000 car of John Monson and has a 5 litre Chevrolet engine. It is chassis TS8/005 and was originally a Team Surtees car driven by Mike Hailwood.

Friday's Ferrari

Ferrari was the featured marque at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997, and as well as a special display of Ferraris in the paddock there were three races in the weekend programme set aside for Ferraris.

Here are two of the Ferrari 250 GTOs that were present that day, both owned by Anthony Bamford, then Sir Anthony and now Lord Bamford. The one on the left is a 1963 car, chassis #4399GT that was rebodied at the end of 1963 with a 1964 series II body. This car was first owned by Colonel Ronnie Hoare of Maranello Concessionaires and raced by several drivers including Mike Parkes, Graham Hill and Innes Ireland, Graham Hill winning the 1963 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood and Mike Parkes the 1964 Spa 500 km race. Innes Ireland and Tony Maggs finished in sixth place in the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hour race. It was bought by Anthony Bamford in 1969 and at this Silverstone meeting it was driven by Frank Sytner in the Coys of Kensington Ferrari GT race. On the right is a 1962 car, chassis #3767GT that doesn't appear to have taken part in any of the races that weekend. It was originally owned by David Piper who raced the car in 1962 and early 1963, his best results being wins in the Kyalami 9 hour race and the Angola Grand Prix in late 1962. It then spent some years in the USA with various owners before returning to the UK and eventually being acquired by Anthony Bamford in 1974. Both cars are powered by the 2,953cc V12 engine designed by Gioacchino Colombo.

1990 Nissan R90CK

This car competed in the Group C/GTP Sports Car Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007 and is seen here at McLean's Corner during a practice session.

It's the 1990 Nissan R90CK of Henry Pearman with a 3,496cc twin turbocharged V8 engine that Mark Blundell qualified on pole position for the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hour race. It was driven in that race by Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey and Gianfranco Brancatelli, but retired with engine problems in the eleventh hour of the race.