1965 Lotus 32B

This car took part in the Tasman & Intercontinental class of the HGPCA Pre '66 Rear Engined Grand Prix Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2004.

It's the 2.4 litre 1965 Lotus 32B of Malcolm Ricketts. This car was a one-off derived from the 1 litre Lotus 32 that had been designed for Formula 2 racing in 1964, and was driven by Jim Clark in the 1965 New Zealand/Australia Tasman Series winning four out of the seven races and the Series Championship. Behind the Lotus 32B is another of Malcolm Ricketts' cars, a 1½ litre 1956 Lotus Eleven with which he competed in the BRDC Historic Sports Car Championship Race.

1967 McLaren M1C & 1970 Osella PA3

I photographed these two cars exiting Priory Corner during a qualifying session for the AT & T Istel Steigenberger Supersports Cup Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

The green car is the 1967 McLaren M1C entered by Derichs Rennwagen and driven by Wido Rössler. It's chassis M1C-40-11 and has a small-block Chevrolet 4,992cc V8 engine. The M1C was a customer car built to compete in the CanAm series in Canada and the USA, and M1C-40-11 was originally supplied to Carl Haas. It later passed to Ralph Treischman and then Jim Phillips before spending 14 years in Harrah's Museum then coming back to the UK. The red car is the 1970 Osella PA3 of Lawrence Rose and has a 2 litre BMW M12 engine.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a photograph I took on the Friday practice day for the 1962 British Grand Prix at Aintree with my Kodak Brownie 127 camera.

It's the 1962 Ferrari 156 that was driven in the race by Phil Hill. It had a 1,476cc 120° V8 Ferrari Type 178 engine, but was not as successful as the 1961 model in which Phil Hill had won that year's World Drivers' Championship. In 1962 the Ferrari wasn't as quick as the British BRM, Lotus, Lola and Cooper cars with their new V8 Coventry Climax engines, and they were hampered by a series of strikes in Italy which meant they were unable to compete in the French Grand Prix and Phil Hill's was the only Ferrari that took part in the British Grand Prix. The Ferraris also failed to start in either of the last two races that season, in the USA and South Africa. Phil Hill only managed to qualify the car in 12th place on the grid at Aintree, and retired from the race on the 47th of the 75 laps with distributor failure. The man in the light-coloured suit is Mauro Forghieri, Chief Engineer at Ferrari, and the man in front of him appears to be Phil Hill.

1962 BRM P578

This car, which I photographed at the Donington Park museum in September 2014, had been in the Donington Collection since its early days.

It's a 1962 BRM P578, though strangely the display board says 'P56', and the 1974 book about the Donington Collection also calls it by that name. The forerunner of this car was the 1961 BRM P57 which had a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc Coventry Climax FPF engine, and when the 1962 car was introduced it had a 1,498cc V8 BRM P56 engine and was called the BRM P578 in acknowledgment of the V8 engine. I don't ever recall the car itself being called a BRM P56. The BRM drivers for the 1962 season were Graham Hill and Richie Ginther who had contrasting fortunes. Graham Hill won four of the nine races and that with two second places gave him the World Drivers' Championship, which was helped by his nearest rival Jim Clark having a series of retirements despite winning three races. Richie Ginther was also plagued with retirements, and his only points scoring finishes were a second and a third to leave him in eighth place in the Championship. The 'stack-pipe' exhausts seen on this car were eventually abandoned as they tended to fall off one-by-one.

1953 Cooper Bristol T25

This car took part in the Bonhams Drum Brake Sports Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol of Michael Parr and is a 2 seater sports car based on the Cooper Bristol T23 Formula 2 car. It has a 6-cylinder inline 1,971cc Bristol engine, and appears to be the car with which Tony Crook campaigned from 1953 to 1955.

1971 Surtees TS9

This car competed in the Grand Prix Masters race at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

It's Peter Austin's 1971 Surtees TS9B, chassis 004, that was raced by the Surtees team in the 1971 and 1972 seasons, being uprated from a TS9 to a TS9B before the start of the 1972 season. The Surtees TS9 was powered by the 2,993cc Ford Cosworth DFV V8 engine and was not particularly successful, the best result being Mike Hailwood's second place in the 1972 Italian Grand Prix. 

 

1937 Bentley 4¼ Litre

This car took part in the 2 hour long VSCC Team Relay Race for Pre-War Sports Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's Ralph Robins' 1937 Bentley 4¼ Litre (shown in the programme of the event as a Bentley 4¼ Special), one of the 'Derby Bentleys' - so named because they were built at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby after Rolls-Royce's acquisition of the Bentley Company in 1931. The Bentley 4¼ Litre was developed from the 3½ Litre, which was introduced in 1933 and was the first new Bentley model produced after the Rolls-Royce takeover. The 3,669cc of the Rolls-Royce 6-cylinder inline engine in the Bentley 3½ Litre was increased to 4,257cc for the 4¼ Litre model, which was produced from 1936 to 1939.