Cooper Bristol

When I was 11 or 12 years old I remember a set of dinky toy 1950s racing cars: an Alfa Romeo 158 in Italian racing red, a Talbot Lago T26 in French blue, a Maserati (4CL I think) in the Swiss racing colours of red with a white flash, a light green British HWM, a Ferrari 500 in Argentinian colours of blue and yellow and last but not least a Cooper Bristol in dark British racing green. More than any of the others I am reminded of those dinky toys each time I see a Cooper Bristol.

The photographs below are of three Cooper Bristols taken at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982.

This car's not shown in the programme of the event so I don't know who drove it that day

 A MkII model of 1952, driven in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers Race by H S Clifford

R J S MacPherson driving his 1953 MkII

Jaguar E-Type

The Jaguar E-type won at Oulton Park in 1961 on its first competitive outing in a car driven by Graham Hill. The Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2012 included two races for the 'J.D.Classics Pol Roger Champagne E-Type Challenge' and the programme of the event had this to say about the races:

'Conceived last year by Jaguar Heritage and the Historic Sports Car Club, the E-Type Challenge celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of the finest sports cars ever built. Now, in its second season, the E-Type Challenge returns to Oulton Park for a double-header this weekend.

Initially the plan was for the E-Type Challenge to be a one-year only series to mark the special anniversary, but in response to overwhelming competitor demand it has been continued this year. The fact that the cars are up to fifty years old makes the story all the more remarkable.'

Here are photographs of four of the cars I took during one of those races at Lodge Corner:

This is the 1963 car of Michael Wilkinson

Chris Scragg's 1962 car

This is the 1961 car shared in the two races by Michael O'Shea and David Hall

Peter Burton in his 1962 car

Friday's Ferrari

One of the cars in the 'Ferrari Feature' at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992 was this 1953 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti.

The programme of the event says this about the car:

'375 MM Scaglietti

Originally a PF Spyder, this car was rebodied by Scaglietti, probably in 1954/55. It is the only 375 MM ever produced with bodywork by Scaglietti. Raced in Swedish GPs of 1954 and '56, finishing second in '56.'

The serial number of this car is 0366AM

Vauxhall Cresta

A 1959 Vauxhall Cresta PA on the 'Vauxhall PA, PB, PC & E Series O.C. and Vauxhall Victors O.C.' stand at the 13th Northern Classic Car Show on 28th & 29th August 1994 at The G-MEX Centre, City Centre, Manchester (now the Manchester Central Convention Complex).

The show guide says this about the Vauxhall Cresta club:

' The Vauxhall PA PB PC & E Series Owners Club was formed in 1981. The club is international having over 500 members from as far afield as South Carolina, USA to Perth, Australia. We publish a quarterly magazine updating events, parts and cars for sale etc., news, views and topical articles of interest. Members cars have been featured of late in several classic car magazines, adverts and films. We hold regular meetings around the country and have representatives in several areas. We try to attend as many national shows as possible, together with many local shows and hold our own national and regional shows. We are an Associated club with the RAC offering discount on their membership and also approved by Swansea DVLA to recover original registration numbers.'

Packard Cavalier

The Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally organised by the Greater Manchester Transport Society always attracts a few American cars, but not usually as old as the one shown below, photographed at Heaton Park in September 1996.

It's a 1954 Packard Cavalier, not shown in the programme of the event but the 'SK' in the registration number YSK 470 indicates that it was originally registered in Caithness. Caithness, by the way, is as far north as you can get on the mainland of Britain, the major towns being Thurso and Wick, but the most well-known place in Caithness is undoubtedly John o' Groats.

Friday's Ferrari

This is the 1950 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta of Sally Mason-Styrron seen at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001. Why the number plate is upside down I don't know. At one time the model number Ferrari gave to his cars was the displacement of one of the cylinders so as the car originally had a 12 cylinder engine of 1995cc capacity it was given the designation 166. At some stage, however, it's apparently had a new engine fitted, the programme of the meeting showing the capacity as 2300cc. The bodywork was a revolutionary shape at that time and it was likened by one observer to a 'little boat', or 'barchetta' and the name stuck. The serial number of the car is 0040M.

Skoda Type 968

This is a car I photographed in the display area at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992. It's a Skoda Type 968, about which little appears to be known although there's a brief note about the car on this cars.uk.msn.com website.

Llandudno Marine Drive Tour Buses

The photographs below, taken in Heaton Park, Manchester, are of two buses which took part in the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally run by the Greater Manchester Transport Society in September 1993. The buses were owned by Llandudno UDC and mainly used for the 5 mile tour round the Great Orme. Neither of the buses is listed in the programme of the event and were presumably late entries.

This is a 1938 Guy Wolf with Waveney bodywork

This one's a 1954 Guy Otter with Roe bodywork

They use of small vehicles on this service was necessary because the Marine Drive round the Great Orme is a narrow and winding road.

You can see daily photographs of the Great Orme and other parts of Llandudno on the Llandudno Daily Pictures blog.

Friday's Ferrari

On 1 June 2012 I featured a 1954 Ferrari 625 which appeared at the SeeRed meetings at Donington Park in 2004 and 2007. The photographs below show another (or possible the same) Ferrari 625 at the Coys International Historic Festival Meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

The car was entered and driven by Flavien Marçais in what was billed as the 'Maserati UK Race for Pre 1961 Grand Prix Cars' which accounts for the 'Maserati' sticker below the Ferrari badge on this photograph. In a track demonstration of various F1 cars during an interval between races the car was driven by ex-Ferrari driver Tony Brooks shown below leaving the pit lane to start the demonstration run.

The M1

This is a photograph I took in 1962 or 1963 from the back seat of a coach going down the M1 to London. 

Here's a closer look at the road sign you can see on the left of the photograph.

It's very grainy, but you can see that it's straight ahead to Birmingham whilst the next junction takes you onto the A5 towards Markyate and Whipsnade, which means it's about halfway between Luton and Hemel Hempstead. It was probably a weekday morning and I doubt that you'd be so lucky as to drive down there now and see so little traffic about.

Speedway: Belle Vue Aces v Oxford (9 August 1975)

Soren Sjosten before the start of Heat 1

Heat 1: Dag Lovaas (white) & Alan Wilkinson (red)

Chris Morton before the start of Heat 3

Paul Tyrer before the start of Heat 3

Heat 3: Chris Morton (red) & Richard Greer (yellow/black)

Heat 4: Doug Wyer (red), Russ Hodgson (blue) & John Dews (yellow/black)

Match Result: Belle Vue Aces 45 Oxford 33

Friday's Ferrari

Amongst the cars in the area set aside for members of the Ferrari Owners Club on the inside of Redgate Corner at Donington Park at the Ferrari & Maserati Festival of Racing meeting in May 2003 was the car shown below.

It's a Ferrari 275 GTS, about which Wikipedia (after describing the 275 GTB) says: 

Pininfarina built 200 275 GTS Roadsters for the American market (including 14 in right hand drive) between 1964-1966 with entirely different bodywork. It was intended to be more of a GT car and less of a sports car than its GTB brother. The 275 GTS was replaced by the 330 GTS, leaving no 3.3 L convertible in the range until the creation of the 275 GTB/4 NART Spider.

Ford GT40

Here are two more photographs of the Ford GT40, this time taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

This is one of the cars offered at the Coys auction which took place on the second day of the meeting. It's a 1965 Ford GT40, chassis number F1006 and apparently it didn't sell. The marquee behind the GT40 housed the 'Owen Brown Gallery of Fine Art' and an article about this in the programme of the meeting says:
'Owen Brown, sponsor of the Gallery of Fine Motoring Art, is no stranger to Silverstone or to motor sport. In fact, the company erected marquees for the very first British GP at Silverstone in 1948.'

This one's a 1967 Ford GT MkIV brought along to the meeting by Rod Leach's Nostalgia - better known as a dealer in old and new AC Cobras. The programme says of this car: '.........a 1967 Ford GT MkIV, the ultimate Le Mans contender from Ford and powered by a 7-litre, 520bhp V8, which gave it a top speed of 215mph on the Mulsanne Straight.'

Previous posts on the Ford GT40 were on 

27th November 2012

18th November 2013

and 8th January 2014