AC Cobra

This car took part in the Inter-Marque Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners' Club's Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

It's John Atkins' 4.7 litre 1965 AC Cobra, shown in the programme of the event as being entered by ACOC Cobra Register. The chassis number is COB6058, the 'COB' apparently showing that it was made at Thames Ditton by AC Cars and intended for the home market - as opposed to the ones intended for export which were prefixed 'COX'. All the Thames Ditton cars then had a number beginning with '6', and a subsequent '0' showed that it had a leaf sprung chassis (like this car) or a '1' that showed it had coil springs.

Ford Mustang

I took this photograph in the Owners Clubs area of the paddock at the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004.

It's a 1966 Ford Mustang and a line-up of cars of one of the AC or Cobra Owners Clubs.

AC Cobra

On 28 March 2015 I showed a couple of photographs of an AC Cobra competing in the HSCC Summer Race Meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992. Here's a photograph of the same car at the Aston Martin Owners' Club's Historic Car Races at Oulton Park six years earlier, in September 1986.

It was entered and driven in the HSCC John Lelliott Post-Historic Road Sports Championship race by Aidan Mills-Thomas - who was the entrant and driver in the Oulton Park race six years later. The programme of the event again shows it as having a 4727cc engine, but strangely shows it as a 1967 car and not 1966 as it was said to be in 1992. The 'E' at the end of the registration number indicates that the car was registered between 1 January 1967 and 31 July 1967 (this was the year that the registration year changed from January-December to August-July, so the 'E' registration period only lasted for seven months), but it's possible that the car was actually built in late 1996.

AC Cobra

This car took part in the Barley Construction Improved Road Sports Championship Race at the HSCC Summer Race meeting at Oulton Park in July 1992.

It's a 1966 AC Cobra, which should mean that it's a MkIII, and the programme of the event says that it has a 4727cc engine (289 cu in). It was driven in the race by Aidan Mills-Thomas.

Here's Aidan Mills-Thomas during the race leading the Ford Falcon of Julian Balme and the Lotus Elan S3 of Tim Wright at Foulstons chicane..

AC Cobra

Event 6 at the VSCC & HGPCA Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Donington Park in May 2001 was described in the programme as 'A 2 Hour 15 Minute Race Of The Historic Motor Racing News Gentlemen Drivers for Pre 1966 GT Cars and Pre 1963 Sports Cars'. One of the cars entered in this race was the one pictured below.

It's a 1964 AC Cobra, driven in the race by David Pennell and Dickie Attwood, It's got the 289cu in (4.7 litre) engine and you can read here what H&H Auctions said about the car when it came up for auction in December 2002.

Friday's Ferrari

There are actually four Ferraris seen in this photograph taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 2001. The nearest car is a 1954 Ferrari 750 Monza (0568M) and next to that is a yellow 250 Testa Rossa of 1957 (0738TR). Car number 37 is a 1955 Maserati 300S, beyond that is a red Ferrari 166MM Barchetta (0040M) from 1950 and then a yellow 1956 Ferrari 500TR (0682MDTR). The red coupe beyond that is, I think, an AC Cobra.

The 750 Monza, which was introduced in 1954, was a 3 litre version of the 2 litre Mondial and was named 'Monza' after winning its first race at that circuit in the hands of Mike Hawthorn and Umberto Maglioli. The bodywork for cars was originally designed by Pinin Farina, but it is the later cars with Scaglietti designed bodies which are perhaps better known. This particular car spent most of its life in Finland, hence the Finnish flag on the headrest.