1955 Vanwall

This is a photograph that my brother took in the paddock at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in September 1955.

It's the 1955 Vanwall (#VW2) that was driven in the race by Harry Schell. He qualified in fifth place on the grid, but retired after 16 laps with a broken universal joint. The race was won by Stirling Moss in a Maserati 250F.

1955 Vanwall

The Donington Grand Prix Collection at the Donington Park museum included a comprehensive display of Vanwall F1 cars. This is a photograph of one of those cars that I took on a visit there in September 2014.

It's the 1955 Vanwall that was driven in the 1955 season by Mike Hawthorn, Ken Wharton and Harry Schell. The engine was designed by Norton engineer Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four Manx single-cylinder 498cc motorcycle engines which by 1955 has been bored out to a capacity of 2489cc. The car only managed one finish in the 1955 World Championship races, a ninth place in the British Grand Prix shared by Ken Wharton and Harry Schell. A couple of wins and a few podium finishes were recorded in minor British events. The way the Vanwalls were displayed on this visit to the museum was far better than on the previous occasions that I’d been there, but they still hadn’t got the lighting quite right.

Historic Grand Prix Car racing at Silverstone

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Lindsay Owen-Jones in his 1958 Maserati 250F #2534 followed by Nigel Corner's 1956 Maserati 250F #2528 and John Harper in Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall. The car in the background is another Maserati 250F, and it appears to be Jeffrey Pattinson in #2508, the car originally owned by Stirling Moss.

Maserati versus Vanwall

This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Lindsay Owen-Jones in his 1958 Maserati 250F #2534 followed by John Harper in Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall and Nigel Corner's 1956 Maserati 250F #2528.

1957 Vanwall 'Streamliner'

I took this photograph in a dark corner of the Donington Park museum in March 1996 before the later alterations which provided a proper display for the Vanwall Grand Prix cars.

It's the 1957 Vanwall F1 car with the streamlined body that never actually raced. The Vanwall of 1956-58 was designed by Colin Chapman and the body by Frank Costin, and it used the Vanwall engine designed by Norton engineer Leo Kuzmicki which was basically an enlarged version of four single-cylinder 498cc Norton engines joined together. The streamlined body was taken to the high-speed Reims circuit (a triangular five-mile road circuit with just two sharp corners and a couple of long sweeping curves) in July of 1957 for the non-championship Reims Grand Prix for evaluation. Regular drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were unavailable and Roy Salvadori and Stuart Lewis-Evans were drafted in for the race. Both drivers tried the streamlined car in practice, but it proved no faster than the normal one, which both drivers preferred to use in the race.

1955 Vanwall

The Donington Grand Prix Collection at the Donington Park museum included a comprehensive display of Vanwall F1 cars. This is a photograph of one of those cars that I took on a visit there in September 2014.

It's the 1955 Vanwall that was driven in the 1955 season by Mike Hawthorn, Ken Wharton and Harry Schell. The engine was designed by Norton engineer Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four Manx single-cylinder 498cc motorcycle engines which by 1955 has been bored out to a capacity of 2489cc. The car only managed one finish in the 1955 World Championship races, a ninth place in the British Grand Prix shared by Ken Wharton and Harry Schell. A couple of wins and a few podium finishes were recorded in minor British events.

1957 Vanwall

This car is in the pit lane at Silverstone prior to going out for the qualifying session for the Chopard HGPCA Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting in July 1994.

It's the 1958 Vanwall of Vijay Mallya and was driven in the race by John Harper. The engine for the first Vanwall in 1954 was designed by a Norton engineer, Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four 498cc Norton motorcycle engines with a common waterjacket and cylinder head. This 2 litre engine was enlarged, first to 2,237cc and then to 2,489cc by 1955. Vijay Mallya's car is chassis VW10, the car with which Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and Portugese Grand Prix in the 1958 season when he narrowly lost out to Mike Hawthorn in the race for the World Drivers' Championship title.

 

1958 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 the 1958 Vanwall of Vijay Mallya and was driven in the race by John Harper. The engine for the first Vanwall in 1954 was designed by a Norton engineer, Leo Kuzmicki, and was basically four 498cc Norton motorcycle engines with a common waterjacket and cylinder head. This 2 litre engine was enlarged, first to 2,237cc and then to 2,489cc by 1955. Vijay Mallya's car is chassis VW10, the car with which Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and Portugese Grand Prix in the 1958 season when he narrowly lost out to Mike Hawthorn in the race for the World Drivers' Championship title.

1957 Vanwall 'Streamliner'

I took this photograph in a dark corner of the Donington Park museum in March 1996 before the later alterations which provided a proper display for the Vanwall Grand Prix cars.

It's the 1957 Vanwall F1 car with the streamlined body that never actually raced. The Vanwall of 1956-58 was designed by Colin Chapman and the body by Frank Costin, and it used the Vanwall engine designed by Norton engineer Leo Kuzmicki which was basically an enlarged version of four single-cylinder 498cc Norton engines joined together. The streamlined body was taken to the high-speed Reims circuit (a triangular five-mile road circuit with just two sharp corners and a couple of long sweeping curves) in July of 1957 for the non-championship Reims Grand Prix for evaluation. Regular drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were unavailable and Roy Salvadori and Stuart Lewis-Evans were drafted in for the race. Both drivers tried the streamlined car in practice, but it proved no faster than the normal one, which both drivers preferred to use in the race.

Silverstone Pit Lane

This is a photograph I took from the pit wall at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994. It shows the competitors for the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile GP car race going out for a practice session.

Leading the pack are three red Maserati 250Fs, from left to right Jeffrey Pattinson (no. 8) Burkhard von Schenk (no. 10) and Nigel Corner (no. 5). Number 23 just poking out of the pit garage on the left is the Cooper Bristol of Oliver Robinson  and the light green car in front of him is also a Cooper Bristol, that of Graham Burrows (no. 22). Coming out of the next pit garage is the Cooper T41 of Alan Miles (no. 14) and beyond that Paul Jaye's Alta (no. 18) has just left the garage. In front of Peter Jaye's car is another Alta, that of Ian Nuthall (no. 26), and behind that the Cooper Bristol of Paul Alexander (no. 19). The red car behind that Cooper is another Maserati 250F and it appears to have a number 7 which is shown in the programme as Robin Lodge's car, but he actually drove his Maserati 4CM in the  race (also number 7) and that is the red car at the end of the pit garages. The green car behind the three Maserati 250Fs is the Vanwall of John Harper (no. 1), and on the right behind that is another Maserati 250F which I can't identify as there were another five of these cars in the race. In the far distance is what appears to be ERA R1A or R3A, but there were three ERAs in the race, driven by Tony Merrick, Duncan Ricketts and Tony Stephens and the programme doesn't identify which ERAs those were.

1958 Vanwall

This car competed in the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, owned by Vijay Mallya and driven in the race by John Harper. The Vanwall was a very successful competitor in Grand Prix races in 1957 and 1958, winning three races in 1957 when Stirling Moss finished second in the World Driver's Championship to Juan Fangio's Maserati 250F. In 1958 the Vanwall won six races but Stirling Moss again ended up in second place in the World Drivers' Championship, this time by only one point to the Ferrari 246 Dino of Mike Hawthorn who only won one race but had five second place finishes to give him the title. Vanwall's Tony Brooks finished in third place in the Championship, but the points that he and Stirling Moss won were enough to give Vanwall the World Constructors' Championship.

Vanwall VW14

I took this photograph at the recently closed down Donington Park Museum in May 1989.

This is the last car built by Vanwall, the rear engined 1961 Vanwall VW14, which was built when the old 2½ litre limit for Formula 1 cars was reduced to 1½ litres and VW14 was built to contest the 3 litre Intercontinental Formula. The car originally had a 2½ litre Vanwall engine bored out to 2,605cc and only contested a handful of races before development was stopped when the Intercontinental Formula didn't catch on in Europe.

On 9 November 2015 I showed photographs of this and other Vanwalls that I'd taken at the Donington Park Museum in 2014.

Vanwall

I took this photograph during practice day for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1959.

It's the 'T' car driven in practice by Vanwall driver Tony Brooks. After fielding a full team in every race in the 1958 season Vanwall won the inaugural World Constructors' Championship, Stirling Moss narrowly finished in second place behind Mike Hawthorn in the World Drivers' Championship and Tony Brooks finished in third place. Tony Vandervell's health had been failing and the death of Stuart Lewis-Evans in the last race of that season in Morocco dealt a blow to the team from which they never recovered. The British Grand Prix was the only race they contested in 1959, and the only reason that the now Ferrari team driver Tony Brooks was able to drive the car was that Ferrari didn't compete in this race, giving the reason that strikes in Italy meant they weren't able to get their cars to Aintree. Tony Brooks was released from his Ferrari contract for this race, allowing him to drive the Vanwall, but he retired after 13 laps with ignition problems. Vanwall's last World Championship race, and the only one they contested in 1960, was the French Grand Prix at Reims where Tony Brooks lasted only 7 laps before retiring.

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.

Vanwall

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's John Harper driving Vijay Mallya's 1958 Vanwall, chassis number VW10. It is, I think, the car in which in 1958 Stirling Moss won the Dutch Grand Prix and the Portugese Grand Prix, and finished in second place in the French Grand Prix. On 29 March 2016 I showed several photographs of VW10 at this 1993 Coys meeting, and on 9 November 2015 I showed photographs of the collection of Vanwalls at the Donington Park Museum.

Vanwall

This car took part in the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1958 Vanwall, chassis VW10, owned at the time by Vijay Mallya - who later became leader of the consortium which ran the Force India F1 team.

The programme of the event said this about the Vanwall:

In 1957 and 1958 British Racing Green finally became the dominant colour in grand prix racing, thanks to the efforts of the Acton-based Vanwall team. After winning three of the last four world championship grands prix of 1957, the Colin Chapman designs were successful in six 1958 races, giving Tony Vandervell, the car's sponsor, the world F1 constructors' championship.

Only one of the original team cars was kept, and it is here at the Coys International Historic Festival. Acquired recently by Vijay Mallya, the Vanwall is entered at Silverstone with the incomparably experienced John Harper as driver, and he will be striving to ensure that its reputation among Formula 1 cars of the era is preserved.

For many racing enthusiasts at Silverstone today, the sight of the Vanwall being raced in anger once again will alone be worth the price of admission, and will bring memories flooding back to those who lived through the years when Britain was struggling to make her mark in the international grand prix arena.

There was a special display of cars, including the Vanwall, to mark the meeting's theme of British Racing Green.

I was fortunate enough to be at Aintree in 1957 when Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks shared the winning drive in a Vanwall when it became the first British car to win a World Championship Grand Prix.

This is the view other drivers most frequently got of the Vanwall in the 1958 season.

Here's John Harper in the race following closely behind the 1958 Maserati 250F of Lindsay Owen Jones at Luffield corner.

Vanwall

The Donington Grand Prix Collection at the Donington Park museum includes a comprehensive display of Vanwall F1 cars. Here are some photographs I took on a visit there in September 2014.

This is the car raced by Vanwall in 1955 - I saw it that season in the British Grand Prix at Aintree and the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park.

This is the experimental streamlined body, the only appearance of which was during practice for the 1957 French Grand Prix on the high-speed Reims circuit. It was not used in the race.

The Colin Chapman/Frank Costin designed car which was introduced in 1956 and had considerable success in the 1957 and 1958 seasons.

The 1961 rear-engined car designed for the 3 litre Intercontinental Formula series introduced when F1 changed from 2½ to 1½ litres, but the Intercontinental Formula wasn't popular in Europe and the car soon became obsolete.

The tightness of the street circuit at Monaco meant that cars were prone to front-end damage caused by minor shunts, so Vanwall used this short-nosed car for the races there in 1957 and 1958. Connaught did the same thing with the 'toothpaste-tube' B type.

Vanwall

Here's another of the old Kodak Brownie 127 photographs, this one taken during practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1959.

It's a Vanwall - Tony Brooks drove the only Vanwall entered in the race and the 'T' on this car shows that it's the training or practice car. The access to the racing circuit is behind the car, so presumably it's being wheeled back into the paddock by two mechanics after a practice run. The Vanwall retired after 13 laps with ignition problems and the race was eventually won by Jack Brabham in a Cooper-Climax T51.