1954 Maserati 250F

Maserati was the featured marque at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005, and in particular the 2½ litre 250F Formula One car. A total of 16 of the 250Fs appeared at the meeting, either competing or being displayed on and off the track, and here is one of them.

This is Josef Rettenmaier at McLean’s Corner during the Celebration Maserati Invitation Race in his 1954 car, chassis #2508, which was once owned by Stirling Moss. There were short notes in the programme of the event giving details for each Maserati 250F chassis number, and this is what it said about Josef Rettenmaier's car:

 

'2508

Ordered by Stirling Moss through the Shell-BP company office in Italy. Raced by Moss until he joined Mercedes-Benz, and later loaned to various drivers including Mike Hawthorn, Bob Gerard and John Fitch. Sold to Ross Jensen in New Zealand and returned to the UK in 1964. Now owned by Josef Rettenmaier in Germany.'

Formula Junior Racing

This is a photograph that I took at Redgate Corner during the Front-engined Formula Junior Racing Cars race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

Brian Mitcham in his 1960 Mallock U2 Mk2 is leading the 1959 Elva 100 of Mark Woodhouse which is being driven by his son, Jack Woodhouse.

1957 Maserati 250F V12

The featured marque at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was the Maserati and the photograph below shows one of the cars that took part in demonstration runs during the meeting.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, chassis 2531, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The car was later given a 2½ litre V12 engine but I can't find anything that says it was the car's original V12 engine.

1928 Riley Brooklands

This car took part in the two 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 David Furnell's 1928 Riley Brooklands with a tuned version of the Riley Nine's 1,087cc 4-cylinder inline engine. The Riley Nine was designed by two of the Riley brothers, Percy and Stanley, and the Brooklands was the work of John G Parry Thomas and Reid Railton who shortened the chassis by some 15 inches and fitted an undershield the full length of the car. The engine had high compression pistons, special camshafts and 2 carburettors, increasing its output to 50bhp.

1965 TVR 1800S

This was one of the competitors in the Equipe GTS Series race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1965 TVR 1800S of Mark Ashworth and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,798cc BMC B-series engine. The 1800S was a development of the TVR Grantura Mark III and approximately 128 were built between 1965 and 1967.

1957 Kurtis KK500G Offenhauser

This car took part in the Flockhart Trophy Race for Pre-1961 Front-Engined Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1957 Kurtis KK500G Offenhauser of Stuart Harper, driven in the race by Frederick Harper, which was shown in the programme of the event as a 4.2 litre Kurtis Indy Roadster. This is the car that Ray Crawford took to the Indianapolis 500 race in 1957 and 1958 as the Meguiar Mirror Glaze Special, but failed both times to qualify for the race. Ray Crawford took part in the Race of Two Worlds round the banked oval at Monza with the car in both 1957 and 1958, one-sided exhibition events that pitted American Indianapolis cars against a motley collection of European cars. The race in both years consisted of three heats with the winner being the best car over the three races. In 1957 Ray Crawford's results in the heats were seventh, fourth and retired, and in 1958 tenth, eighth and fourth.

1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail

This was one of the competitors in the 1950s Sports Racing Cars race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1956 Cooper T39 of Michael Thorne, more commonly known as the Cooper Bobtail because of the truncated tail of the car which was aerodynamically effective, but which John Cooper claimed to have been shortened so that it would fit inside the works transporter. The car was used in the 1,100cc and 1,500cc classes of sportscar racing and this car has a 4-cylinder inline 1,460cc Coventry Climax engine. It was reputedly the road-holding characteristics of this car that led John Cooper to produce first the rear-engined 1½ litre Formula 2 car and then the 2½ litre Formula 1 car that gave Jack Brabham the World Drivers' Championship in 1959 and 1960. Cooper's successes led all the other teams to adopt the rear-engine layout, and the last Formula 1 Grand Prix to be won by a front-engined car was Ferrari's victory in the 1960 Italian Grand Prix.

1925 Bugatti Type 35

This car took part in the Williams Trophy Race for Pre-1934 Grand Prix Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1925 Bugatti Type 35 of Duncan Pittaway. The Type 35 had a 1,991cc straight-8 engine and was the most successful racing car of its era.

1944 Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX MK356

This aircraft was part of the air display on the Sunday of the weekend long Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's a 1944 Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and I've found this history of the aircraft:

MK356  -              Mk.IX     Battle of Britain Memorial Flight,

RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK.

Built at Castle Bromwich and delivered to 9 MU Cosford on February 4th 1944. Allotted to 443 (Canadian) Sqn on March 11th 1943 it carried the code 21-V. Used extensively on operations leading up to D-Day it was assigned to 83 Group Support Unit on August 8th 1944. Then conversion to an instructional airframe at No 1 School of Technical Training at RAF Halton in October 1945 with serial 5690M. In 1951 it was transferred to RAF Hawkinge for gate display duties carrying the serial M5690. After some restoration work at 71 MU RAF Bicester in 1961 it was erected on a pole at RAF Locking for some years before allocation to the 'Battle of Britain' film unit at RAF Henlow in October 1967. Carrying the spurious serials and codes N3328/AI-R & N3317/BO it was filmed at North Weald and Duxford.Temporarily stored at RAF Henlow after the film on August 8th 1969 it joined the RAF Museum Reserve Collection based at RAF St Athan. Over an 8 year period it was restored to flight on November 7th 1997. Joined the BBMF on November 14th 1997. Shortly to be temporarily based at RAF Barkston Heath, Lincs. while the runways at RAF Coningsby are renovated. The aircraft is presented as a clipped wing LF Mk IX and carries the only markings it ever wore operationally as 21-V of 443 Squadron RCAF. MK356 was flown in to Duxford in October 2007 for 6 months maintenance to be carried out by the Aircraft Restoration Company and will include a repaint, replacement of the MK500 Merlin engine with a M266 Merlin engine to return the aircraft to build standard, and a respar of the wings will be necessary (Major maintenance of the BBMF fighters will be carried out by the Aircraft Restoration Company (ARCo) based at Duxford near Cambridge, for the next 5 years with an option to extend to 7 years). The new paint scheme will depict a 601 Squadron aircraft based in the Italian theatre in 1943. Presented as UF-Q, MJ250 of No 601 ( County of London ) Squadron the aircraft of Flight Lieutenant Desmond Ibbotson DFC. She is now in a silver paint scheme used during late 1944 when the Squadron carried out fighter bomber missions over the Balkans from bases in Southern Italy.

1955 Cousy 500cc

This car took part in the Short Scratch Race for Formula 3 (500) Racing Cars at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

The leading car is the 1955 Cousy No.2 of John Jones, the second of two cars built by Frenchman Georges Cousy with a flat opposed twin two-stroke engine of his own design. Behind him is the yellow 1952 Kieft CK52 of Rodney Delves. There's a thriving 500 Owners Association with details of lots of the cars that have competed in 500cc racing since it started in 1946.

1959 BRM P25

This car competed in the Flockhart Trophy Race for pre-1961 Front-Engined Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's Anthony Ditheridge's 1959 BRM P25, although the programme of the event shows it as number 140. BRM’s in-period Project 25 classification covered the engine design alone, the spaceframe chassis structure comprising Project 27. This car is he ninth of the team’s 2½-litre 4-cylinder Type 25s to be built and was the fourth to use the `1958 spaceframe Project 27 chassis in place of an original semi-monocoque design which had been used for the preceding five cars. Those semi-monocoque BRM Type 25s built from 1955 to 1957 are recorded within the team archive as cars ‘251’ to ‘255’. The subsequent six pure spaceframe cars built 1958-1959 were then referred to as ‘256’ to ‘2511’, even though their Project 27 chassis frames were numbered in sequence ‘27/1’ to ‘27/6’. Hence, this car was referred to in contemporary BRM team records – which survive today – as ‘259’, while its specific chassis frame stamping reads – again perfectly correctly – ‘27/4’. The P25 was said to be the fastest of the 1954-1960 Formula 1 era, partly due to the oversquare (102.87 mm bore x 74.93 mm stroke) engine allowing for larger valves to be fitted. The car was plagued with reliability problems, however, and the only Grand Prix win was Jo Bonnier's victory in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix in chassis 258.

The car behind the BRM is the 1956 Willment Climax of Barry Cannell which took part in the 1950s Sports Racing Cars race, and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,963cc Climax FPF engine.

1930 Riley Brooklands

This car took part in three races at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011, including the two hour long VSCC Team Relay Race for Pre-war Sports Cars.

It's James Potter's 1930 Riley Brooklands with a tuned version of the Riley Nine's 1,087cc 4-cylinder inline engine. The Riley Nine was designed by two of the Riley brothers, Percy and Stanley, and the Brooklands was the work of John G Parry Thomas and Reid Railton who shortened the chassis by some 15 inches and fitted an undershield the full length of the car. The engine had high compression pistons, special camshafts and 2 carburettors, increasing its output to 50bhp.

1956 Maserati 250F

The featured marque at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was Maserati with particular emphasis on the 250F and twelve of these cars are listed in the Celebration Maserati Invitation Race with a further four being shown as static display or track demonstration cars. This is one of the cars that took part in that race photographed inside a marquee in the paddock where various of the Maseratis were displayed at times during the meeting.

It's Stefan Rettenmaier's 1956 Maserati 250F, chassis 2520, and was driven for the Maserati team by José Froilán Gonzales in the Argentine Grand Prix in January of 1956 and by Pablo Gulle in the Buenos Aires City Grand Prix two weeks later. It was then sold to Australian Stan Jones (father of later World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones) who raced the car 'down under' with considerable success during the rest of the 1950s. In 1963 it was brought to the UK by Colin Crabbe and it passed through various other hands before spending some time in the private collection of Giulio Dubbini in Padova until it was acquired by Stefan Rettenmaier. There are little notes about each of the Maserati 250Fs in the programme of the event, and the one for this car reads as follows:

2520

Factory car for Argentina and raced by Froilán Gonzales before deal with Stan Jones in Australia. Colin Crabbe brought it to the UK in 1963. Break from Historic racing life in the Guido Dubbini collection, and now in Germany with Stefan Rettenmaier.

1933 Napier Railton

I took this photograph at Coppice Corner at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

At this meeting there was a series of demonstration runs by this Napier Railton car from Brooklands Museum that was created by Reid Railton, Chief Engineer at Thompson & Taylors Racing car works at Brooklands and intended for racing at the Brooklands banked circuit and also for world speed record attempts. A note in the programme of the event tells the story of the car:

'Commissioned by John Cobb, this car had to be equally suited to also tackle the coveted hour and 24 hour world speed records, usually on foreign soil. Named the Napier-Railton, it was a bespoke special powered by a 24 litre Napier Lion aeroplane engine whose twelve cylinders were arranged in three banks of four and drove via a three speed gearbox to a 1.66 to 1 rear axle. Railton designed all this specially and fitted it into a massive chassis frame with deep side rails passing underneath both front and rear axles. Suspension was by double cantilever springs at the rear with an identical system to the Sunbeam Tiger and Tigress he had designed earlier using semi elliptical units at the front. The only part he had derived from another car was the steering box and column from a Speed Six Bentley. The racing bodywork, similar to the Sunbeam's was made by Gurney Nutting.'

The car was successful from the start, winning races at Brooklands and setting the lap record at 143.44 mph which was still standing when the track finally closed in 1939. Between 1933 and 1936 the car took several world speed records at Montlhéry and Bonneville Salt Flats, the fastest being 100 miles at 168.59 mph. After the Second World War the car was used for a time by Sir Geoffrey Quilter for testing parachutes and later was acquired by the Hon. Patrick Lindsay who used it in VSCC races. After having several other owners it was acquired by the Brooklands Museum in 1997.

1931 MG C-Type Montlhery

I took this photograph at McLeans Corner during the Williams Trophy Race for Pre-1934 Grand Prix Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's the 1931 MG C-Type Montlhery of Barry Foster which has a 746cc supercharged engine. The MG C Type was developed from a car designed for International speed record attempts which was based on the 847cc MG M Type with a supercharged engine reduced to 743cc to try to capture speed records in the under 750cc class H. In January 1931 Captain George Eyston succeeded in setting speed records for this class with several runs at the Montlhery race track in France at over 100mph and the subsequent production MG C-Type was given the tag 'Montlhery'. On the left is the 1928 Bugatti T35 of Bruce Stops.

1956 Maserati 250F

The SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 featured the Maserati marque, and in particular the Maserati 250F. One of the races was a Celebration Maserati Invitation Race, and I took this photograph at McLean's Corner during that race.

It's one of 10 Maserati 250F replicas built by Cameron Millar and this one has the chassis number CM2. Cameron Millar acquired a genuine Maserati 250F in 1964 (originally 2501, later renumbered 2523) which he kept and raced for 8 years. In this time he purchased all the remaining cars and spare parts belonging to the Scuderia Centro Sud who had competed with the 250F in the 1950s, and also the chassis jigs from the Maserati factory. He then set about creating this series of replicas, using as far as possible genuine period parts, which are so well crafted that the FIA has allowed them to race alongside the genuine Maserati 250F and its contemporaries in competitive historic racing events. At the time of this Donington Park event CM2 was owned by Ian Duncan and was driven in the Maserati Invitation race by Rick Hall.

Maserati 250F Cameron Millar Replica

Maserati was the featured marque at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005, and particularly the 250F Formula 1 car of the 1950s. The programme of the event records that, with the exception of the Bugatti Type 35, the Maserati 250F had the highest production of any other Grand Prix car with 28 built, plus twelve further replicas. This car is one of those replicas, one of the ten built by Cameron Miller, and is chassis CM9.

Several of the original cars and the Cameron Millar replicas took part in a special Maserati race, but this car was part of a Maserati display in the Paddock Suite and did not take part in the racing or demonstration runs.

1923 Talbot 10/23

I photographed this car in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

It's a 1923 Talbot 10/23, created by Georges Roesch who increased the size of the 4-cylinder inline Talbot 8 engine that had been designed by Louis Coatalen from 870cc to 1,074cc. The Talbot 10/23 also had a lengthened chassis and more powerful brakes.

Supermarine Spitfire

Because of the proximity of East Midlands Airport (the circuit is just across the road from one end of the runway) aircraft taking off or landing are a familiar sight during meetings at Donington Park. Most of the meetings I've attended there have also included a short flying display during the lunch break, and the SeeRed meeting in September 2007 was no exception.

This is a Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk XIX which was a photo reconnaissance version of the aircraft, and this one bears the black and white stripes that were painted on allied aircraft to reduce the chances that they would be fired on by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings. It is now registered G-RRGN. A note in the programme of the event says: ‘Thanks to Rolls-Royce and Sir Ralph Robins who have organised not only for their WW2 Spitfire, flown by John Allison, to be demonstrated on Saturday, but also for a fly-by from the Red Arrows at Saturday lunchtime.’ I don’t remember the Red Arrows fly-by and I’ve certainly got no photos of it.

Formula Junior

Two Formula Junior cars at Redgate Corner during the Front-engined Formula Junior Racing Cars race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2011.

Leading is Peter St Barbe in his 1959 1,086cc Elva 100 closely followed by Gordon Russell in Pat Barford's 1959 1,098cc Gemini Mk II.