BRM P261

This car competed in the Pre-1966 Allcomers Race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's Anthony Mayman's 1964 BRM P261, about which the programme of the event said this:

'The Pre-1966 Allcomers Race runs to regulations much the same as for Saturday's post-war event, except that newer cars are admitted this time. Only one entrant has taken advantage of this: Anthony Mayman is fielding his 1964 BRM P261. This Formula One car was later uprated to two-litre specification for racing in the Australasian Tasman series.

The 1961-65 Grand Prix formula saw an almost universal switch from tubular spaceframe chassis construction to aircraft-type monocoque designs, and great strides were also made in tyre technology, all of which should give Mayman an advantage over the older cars.'

The P261 was driven in the 1964 season by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, Hill winning the Monaco and United States races and finishing in second place in the Drivers' Championship to the Ferrari of John Surtees. Ginther finished in fifth place in the Drivers' Championship and BRM were second to Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.

BRM fielded the P261 again in the 1965 season, Graham Hill's team-mate now being Jackie Stewart. Hill was again second in the Driver's Championship, this time to Jim Clark's Lotus, and again winning in Monaco and the USA. Jackie Stewart was third in the Drivers' Championship, winning the Italian Grand Prix, and BRM finished second in the Constructors' Championship which was won by Lotus.

Talbot Lago T26C

This was one of the cars entered in the Coys auction which took place during the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's obviously a Talbot Lago, but apart from that I can't find any information about this particular car.

Early Talbot Lago sportscars were the T26C Grand Prix cars with a widened body to accommodate two seats, and were fitted with lights and simple motorcycle-style mudguards.

For the 1952 Le Mans 24 hour race, motorcycle-style mudguards were banned and cars had to have all-enveloping bodywork. Some of the T26C Talbot Lagos were rebodied in this style and this is perhaps one of those.

Abarth 124 Spider

This car was on one of the trade displays at the Val Des Terres hillclimb which we watched when we visited Guernsey in July.

It's the new Abarth 124 Spider, the Abarth version of the Fiat 124 Spider which is based on the Mazda MX-5. The car will be on sale in the UK from October 2016.

Michigan K Tourer

I photographed this car in the Exchange Station car park before the start of the Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1991.

It's a 1912 Michigan K Tourer, and the programme of the event said this about it:

21.     1912 Michigan K Tourer

           Reg: DS 8111   4 cylinder   40 hp

(C.R.Unsworth, Ashton-in-Makerfield)

Another US import, this time from a Massachussets

museum. Known as the 'Mighty Michigan', the model K

was the largest produced by the firm between 1911 and

1913, when the company ceased trading due to fraud by

six of the directors! Only known example in the UK, it

has dual ignition, coil and magneto.

It appears, therefore, to have been a product of the Michigan Buggy Company, rather than the Michigan Automobile Company.

Austin Hall-Scott EB4

This car competed in the VSCC Edwardian Race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

It's Edward Way's 1911/18 Austin Hall-Scott EB4, a 1911 Austin chassis - presumably from the 40hp or 60hp car - fitted with a 10 litre 4-cylinder Hall-Scott Aero engine. I understand that it's a fairly recent creation.

Friday's Ferrari

This car competed in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's Neil Corner's 1960 Ferrari Dino 246 F1 car, originally serial number 007 and now 0788F, The car is currently owned by Tony Smith.

Sunbeam Alpine Mk1

These cars formed one of a number of displays at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993 celebrating 'British Racing Green'.

They're three of the works Sunbeam Alpine Mk1s that took part in the 1953 Alpine Rally. The car nearest the camera, MKV 23, was the car shared by Peter Collins and Ronnie Adams which was disqualified from the event as told in this history of the car by Bonhams Auctioneers. The car next to it, MKV 24, was driven in that event by John Fitch and Peter Miller, but you can't see the registration number in the third car. The rest of the team competing in that Alpine Rally were: MKV 21 driven by Stirling Moss and John Cutts, MKV 22 driven by George Murray-Frame and John Pearman, MKV 25 driven by Sheila Van Damm and Ann Hall, and MKV 26 driven by Leslie Johnson and David Humphrey.

Piccard_Pictet Special

Here's a car thet took part in one of the handicap races at the VSCC's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's David Baker's Piccard-Pictet Special, a Piccard-Pictet (or Pic-Pic) chassis fitted with a 9,062cc Sturtevant aero engine.

Here's the car during its race leaving Lodge Corner and heading down towards Deer Leap.

Rolls Royce Phantom

Here's a car I photographed earlier this year on the local Asda car park. Amongst the major supermarkets Asda claims to offer the cheapest prices for its own brand products.

It's a 7th generation Rolls Royce Phantom.

The first Rolls Royce Phantom was produced in 1925, and the generations 2 to 7 followed in 1929, 1936, 1950, 1959, 1968 and 2003.

The current price of a Rolls Royce Phantom at the H.R.Owen dealership 'starts at £318,120'.

Bugatti Type 35B

I photographed this car at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

It's Mike Preston's Bugatti, a replica of a Type 35B created from a Type 37 in 1995/96. The Type 37 used the chassis and body of the Type 35, but with a straight-4 engine of 1.5 litres instead of the 2.3 litre straight-8 engine of the Type 35B.

Cooper Jaguar

This car took part in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Ken Rogers' 1954 Cooper Jaguar and appears to be the second one built, chassis number CJ-2-54. The programme of the event shows it to have a 3.8 litre engine.

Morgans Old and New

This is a photograph I took of a gathering of Morgans at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2004.

The red car is a 3-wheeler 1937 Morgan with a 990cc Matchless engine, and next to it a Morgan Aero 8 with a 53 registration plate which would have been issued between 1 September 2003 and 29 February 2004.

Friday's Ferrari

Here's one of the cars we saw in St Peter Port at the Motorsport Seafront Sunday event on our recent trip to Guernsey.

It's a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta (the officially F12Berlinetta, but that makes it seem a typographical error)

The car was introduced in 2012 and is still in production

Here's what it says about the car on the official Ferrari website

Lotus 18

This is a photograph I took in the pit lane at the HGPCA's Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's Michael Schryver's 1960 Lotus 18 that competed in the HGPCA Race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars. The Lotus 18 was Colin Chapman's first rear-engined car, introduced in 1960 in the last year of 2½ litre Formula One racing as a replacement for the front-engined Lotus 16 which was being outclassed by the rear-engined Cooper. Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's privately owned Lotus 18 gave Lotus its first World Championship victory at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix.

Jowett Jupiter

This car was one of the exhibits at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1991.

Production of the Jowett Jupiter started in 1950, and the brochure of this show had the following note under the Jowett Car Club entry:

'The "Jowett Jupiter at 40" Exhibition is a tangible visual way of examining the climate in the early fifties within the context of an independant car company capable of producing a beautiful and innovating product, yet unable to withstand the ferocity of the merger giants. The exhibition encapsulates the very real headway that this Bradford firm made throughout the twenties and thirties, culminating in the sleek lines of the Jupiter which wooed the motoring public at competition level and won the keen interest of experts.'

On 9 June 2015 I showed a photograph taken at the 1989 Northern Classic Car Show of a Rochdale bodied Jowett Jupiter. There's a website for the Jowett Car Club, and within that a link to a website devoted to the Jowett Jupiter.

Alta Voiturette

I photographed this car at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004, where it competed in the VSCC's Hawthorn Memorial Trophy & Hawthorn Spanish Trophy race.

It's Martin Redmond's 1938 Alta Voiturette which competed for the Spanish Trophy in that race. On 22 August 2015 I featured this car at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

Tojeiro Bristol

This is a car I photographed at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002. It took part in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars.

In the 1950s Cliff Davies, a London car dealer and enthusiastic club racing driver, asked John Tojeiro to provide him with a chassis into which he could fit a 2 litre Bristol engine. This chassis was given an aluminium body which was very similar in style to the 'Barchetta' bodies which had been popularised by Ferrari, and the car pictured above was the result. It's the 1953 Tojeiro Bristol which was raced in the Oulton Park meeting by Nick Wigley. 

This is the car that John Tojeiro showed to the directors of AC Cars Ltd in Thames Ditton who were so impressed that they used the design as the basis for the AC Ace, which later evolved into the AC Cobra.

Maserati 250F

This is one of about a dozen Maserati 250Fs that were present at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the ex-Gilby Engineering Company's Maserati 250F, with the replacement chassis 2507/2 given to the car after an accident at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in 1954. The programme of the Donington Park SeeRed meeting had brief notes about all the 250Fs that Maserati built, and all the replicas subsequently produced by Cameron Millar. The note about 2507/2 said this:
2507
Second car with 2507 number when delivered back to Gilby Engineering. Driven by Salvadori, Jim Russell and Ivor Bueb. Eventually ended up with Portuguese collector in the 1960s until its return to UK and historic racing with the late Amschel Rothschild. Now in Germany with Klaus Edel.

Jim Clark

Here's a photograph I took in the paddock on practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1962.

It's the late Jim Clark who qualified his Lotus 25 in pole position for the race, in which he finished in first place and also set the fastest lap. Jim Clark won three of the nine World Championship races that season, but retired in four of the other races due to the fragility of the Lotus 25, finishing second in the World Championship to Graham Hill. The Lotus was sorted by the following year though, Jim Clark winning seven of the ten races and the World Championship by a large margin from Graham Hill.

Friday's Ferrari

This car took part in the 1 hour long Italian Historic Car Cup race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB of Larry Kinch, who shared the driving in the race with Nathan Kinch. The car has a 3.3 litre V12 engine and the chassis number is 07765.

Aston Martin DB3S

I took these photographs at a rain-sodden Oulton Park at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting in September 1992.

It's Jeffrey Pattinson's 1955 Aston Martin DB3S, chassis number DB3S/110,

A piece on the astonmartins.com website says this about the Aston Martin DB3S Customer Cars:

'Following on from the success of the team cars, Aston Martin offered the DB3S for sale to wealthy enthusiasts for both fast road use and also of course for the race track. Introduced for sale at the 1954 Motor Show, the slippery Frank Freely styled DB3S was extremely expensive at £3684 inclusive of UK taxes; the fixed head coupe was an astronomical £4800. Twenty production cars were built in total, a figure which included the three fixed head coupes.'

Here's Jeffrey Pattinson approaching Lodge Corner during his race

Auto Unions at Donington Park in 2001

On 2 December 2012 I showed some photographs of the 1937 Auto Union C-type and 1938 D-type that Audi took to the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001, Here are the other seven photographs of the cars I took that day - six of the C-type and one of the D-type.

Here's what grandprixhistory.org has to say about the Auto Union C-type

The 1937 European Championship Grand Prix season was dominated by Mercedes-Benz with the W125, but Rudolf Hasse won the Belgian Grand Prix in an Auto Union C-type.

Berndt Rosemeyer won the 1937 Donington Grand Prix, a non-championship event, in an Auto Union C-type. 

Hans Stuck, Hermann Müller, Ernst von Delius, Tazio Nuvolari, Luigi Fagioli and Achille Varzi were the other drivers for Auto Union in the European Championship Grand Prix races in 1937.

Ernst von Delius lost his life in an accident in the 1937 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring at the wheel of an Auto Union.

The 1937 European Championship was won by Rudolf Caracciola in his Mercedes-Benz W125, winning three of the five races. The highest placed Auto Union driver was Hans Stuck in fifth place.

Tazio Nuvolari won the 1938 Italian Grand Prix in an Auto Union D-type, but Mercedes-Benz won the other three races in the 1938 European Championship Grand Prix series with the W154.

March 711

This car took part in the 'Silverstone International Trophy for Pre 1978 Grand Prix Cars' race at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.

It's Malcolm Carter's 1971 March 711, the car with the famous 'tea tray' front wing that was raced in the 1971 and 1972 seasons by Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Pace. It had its initial outing in the hands of Ronnie Peterson at the 1971 Brands Hatch Race of Champions. Its chassis number is 711/3 and its significant racing appearances are detailed in this oldracingcars.com website.

Billund Motor Museum (3)

On 18 May 2016 and 26 June 2016 I showed some of the photographs that I took of the cars when I visited the Billund Motor Museum in August 1992. Here are the rest of the photographs I took that day.

1952 EMW 340 Sedan.

1955 Mercedes Benz 300SL

1953 Hudson Hornet Saloon

1953 Mercedes Benz 300S

A Trabant 601 - mainly remembered as the car used by thousands of East Germans to reach West Germany via Czechoslovakia or Hungary just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Scammell Scarab

I photographed this vehicle in Heaton Park, Manchester at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in September 1993.

It's a 1961 Scammell Scarab, and the programme of the event said this about it:

Scammell Scarab, 1961                                                                       8243VM

Entered by JL & B Nuttall, Clwyd

New to Manchester Public Libraries. Acquired for preservation in 1991. 

On 19 January 2015 I showed a photograph of this vehicle at the 1996 event.

Milano Mk1 GT

This is a car I photographed at the Historic Sports Car Club's Historic Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2001.

It's Mike Eagles' 1964 Milano Mk1 GT which, despite the Italian-sounding name and the apparent Alfa Romeo insignia, is an Australian car with a 3 litre Holden engine. It took part in the HSCC Historic Roadsports Championship Race.

Friday's Ferrari

This is a car that took part in a Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's the 1971 Ferrari 712 Can-Am of Carlos Monteverde, driven at this meeting by David Franklin, and pictured here in the pit lane during a practice session. The programme of the event had this note about the race by Neil F Murray:

'These disc braked cars are well out of VSCC territory, thus making me unqualified to pass comment on them. However, one thing that I can guarantee you is that they will be extremely swift, with David Franklin's Can Am car of nearly 7 litres being near the front, if not out in front.'

The car started life in 1970 as a Ferrari 512 S but was converted to 712 specs in 1971, and its chassis number is 1010. On 1 February 2013 I showed a photograph of the car when it was part of a Ferrari display at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.