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Wednesday 27 December 2017

Vanwall

This car took part in the Pre '61 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.
It's Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, that was driven in the race by John Harper. A note in the programme of the event about some of the cars in that race said this about the Vanwall:

Vanwall
The London engineering company Vandervell Products tried longer and harder than others  to prove the contention of boss Tony Vandervell that British cars could take on the Italians - and beat them fair and square. It was a long, hard struggle, but by the end of 1957 Vanwall was the dominant force in grand prix racing, and the following year won the manufacturers' championship. The cars were all broken up when the team stopped racing - all except one car, which was kept for display purposes, and has returned to the winners' circle 37 years on.

I don't think the bit about the other cars being broken up is totally correct as I seem to remember from many years ago that the remaining cars were offered for sale, and certainly the Donington Callection has several examples of the Vanwall.

On 23 May 2017 I showed a photograph of Vijay Mallya's car at the 1993 Coys meeting at Silverstone.

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