1965 Elva Mk VIII BMW

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Tourist Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in 1965.

It was listed in the programme of the event as an Elva BMW entered by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd and was driven by Chris Amon. The race was run in two heats each of 2 hours duration and the winner would be the car that covered the greatest distance in total. The winner was Denny Hulme in a Brabham BT8, completing 138 laps, but Chris Amon's  Elva BMW dropped out of the first heat with overheating after just over 1½ hours and retired after just a few minutes in the second heat with a broken throttle linkage.

1952 Connaught A-Type

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1952 Connaught A-Type of David Wenman which has a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. It is chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. It was driven in this race at Silverstone by Barrie Williams.

1984 Ford Capri

This is a car I came across a few weeks ago on one of my regular walks down to the middle of Hyde to do a bit of shopping.

It's a 1984 Ford Capri MkIII, the last version of a car that began production in 1969 - the MkIII was produced between 1978 and 1986.

The Ford Capri MkIII  came with a series of 7 different engines ranging from 1.3  to 3.0 litres and on the back of this car it says 'CAPRI 2.0 S' - though the DVLA record gives the capacity as 1,593cc.

1957 Lister Jaguar

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the 1957 British Empire Trophy meeting.

It's Archie Scott Brown's 1957 Lister Jaguar, the first Jaguar engined Lister, which was built before the FIA's Appendix C regulations required it to have headlights. Unlike the previous years' meetings which were run in 3 heats according to engine size with a handicap final the 1957 event just had three races based on engine size with the winner of the Trophy being the car that won its race in the shortest time. The 'Up to 1,200cc' race was won by Graham Hill in a Lotus Eleven while the '1,200cc to 2,000cc' race was won by Ron Flockhart, also in a Lotus Eleven but with a larger engine. The 'Over 2,000cc' race was won by Archie Scott Brown in this car and (naturally) he did it in the quickest time to win the Trophy. I came across a quote saying that drivers who raced against him were unanimous in saying that “… Archie spends less time travelling with all wheels pointing straight ahead than any other driver”.

Talbot Lago T26C

These two cars competed in the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

Car number 4 is the 1948 Talbot Lago T26C of Tony Bianchi which has a 6-cylinder inline 4,482cc unsupercharged engine. The Talbot Lagos took part in the 1948 (pre-World Championship) Grand Prix races but were generally outnumbered and outclassed by the Ferraris and Maseratis, although Louis Rosier won the Belgian Grand Prix and Louis Chiron the French Grand Prix in one of these cars. Tony Bianchi’s Talbot-Lago T26C is chassis #110 008 which was Philippe Etancelin's car in 1949 and then passed to Jean Achard in November 1950. Achard moved to Brazil, taking the car, and sold it there to Pinheiro Pires who raced it in Brazil from 1951 to 1954. The car came to the UK via Colin Crabbe in the 1980s and then via other UK owners to Tony Bianchi in the 1990s. On the left, car number 1 is Richard Pilkington's 1950 Talbot T26 GS, one that had been adapted to also run in sports car events. It's chassis #110057, the car with which Louis Rosier and Juan Manuel Fangio competed in the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but retired in the 9th hour after completing 92 laps. It was then given an all-enveloping sports car body and ended up in the hands of Georges Grignard in 1953, but after an accident at Montlhéry in 1954 in which his co-driver Guy Mairesse was killed, Grignard locked the wrecked car away in his garage. Richard Pilkington bought the wreckage in 1958 and after racing the car in its sports car form for some years he eventually restored it to its original cycle-wing body form, racing it at historic race meetings in both sports car and vintage GP races.

1947 Bedford OB

This was one of the vehicles taking part in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally at Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1988.

It's a 1947 Bedford OB and the programme of the event had the following note about the vehicle:

 

HTF 586 BEDFORD OB, SMT B29F, 1947, WARBURTONS OF BURY. Entered by Greater Manchester Transport Society. Warburtons first postwar coach, HTF 586 was used by them until sold in 1950 to R.W. Rouse of Oxhill. Rouse used the coach until retirement in 1973 when the vehicle passed to preservation.

Friday's Ferrari

This was one of the competitors in the GT Challenge race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

It's the Ferrari F430 Challenge of Wayne Marrs being prepared for the early morning qualifying session for the race. This is a track version of the Ferrari F430 intended for the Corse Clienti Challenge series of races, and has a 4,308cc V8 Ferrari F136 E engine.