1960 Porsche 718

I took this photograph at Tom Wheatcroft's Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1960 Porsche 718/2, chassis 202, formerly campaigned by Dutch driver Carel Godin de Beaufort and is finished in the orange Dutch racing colours. A book printed in 1974 giving details of many of the cars in the collection says this about the Porsche (which is now in the Porsche Prototyp Museum in Hamburg):

 

The Porsche 718

Germany's Challenger

French driver Jean Behra began Porsche's single-seater venture into Formula 2 in 1958. He had a central-seat version of the RSK sports car built up and it proved very successful. For 1959 the Stuttgart works produced 'proper' singe-seater cars, with similar air-cooled flat-four engines and trailing-link torsion bar front suspension, and when the 1½ litre Formula 1 came into operation in 1961 they were well prepared to enter Grand Prix racing for the first time.

Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier drove the cars, which proved quite competitive, and when the new eight-cylinder was introduced for 1962 the old cars were sold. Two of them went to the giant Dutchman, Count Carel Godin de Beaufort, and he enjoyed himself hugely as one of that rare breed of private owner-drivers in Formula 1. He suffered a fatal accident in one of the obsolete old Porsches during practice for the 1964 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring. He was, as ever, trying as hard as he could to reach a qualifying time, and the loss of this jovial, larger than life character took some much-needed colour from the Grand Prix scene.

 

PORSCHE 718

Engine: 180° 4-Cyls; 2VPC; 2OHC; Air-cooled; 85mm x 66mm, 1498cc; c. 155bhp/7500rpm.

Chassis: Tubular spaceframe.

Suspension: IFS by trailing arms and TBs/IRS by wishbones and CSp.

Brakes: Discs.

1995 McLaren MP4/10B

This is a photograph I took at the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

It’s a McLaren MP4/10B that competed in the 1995 season, mainly driven by Mark Blundell and Mika Häkkinen. The team switched from the Peugeot engines used the previous season to the Mercedes Benz 2,999cc V10 FO110 engine but the car was no more successful than in the 1994 season. Mark Blundell scored 13 points to finish in tenth place in the World Drivers’ Championship whilst Mika Häkkinen did slightly better with two second place finishes to end the season in seventh place with 17 points. McLaren managed fourth place in the World Constructors’ Championship with 30 points.

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.'

1932-34 Alfa Romeo Tipo B

This is a photograph that I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1932-34 Alfa Romeo Tipo B and the book Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection has this to say about it:

 

The car was based on a very slender channel-frame chassis, carrying a similarly slim body only 26 inches wide. The cockpit sides were low-cut to give the driver elbow room, and the basic eight-cylinder engine was developed to a 2.65 litre capacity with enlarged bore and stroke. Two small Roots supercharger were used, and the power was boosted from the Monza’s 165bhp to 215bhp a 5600rpm. Drive to the rear wheels was unique, with the differential on the back of the gearbox instead of in a rear axle assembly. Two separate propellor shafts enclosed within torque tubes veed rearwards to drive the wheels through simple bevel boxes attached to each hub. Historical controversy clouds the reasoning behind this system, although claims of reduced axle ‘hop’ and added ease of final drive ratio changing to suit varying circuits seem logical. The Monoposto (literally ‘single-seater) made its debut at Monza in the five-hour Italian Grand Prix, held in June 1932. With Nuvolari at the wheel, it won. Three more major victories fell to this car before the season’s end, and then Alfa Romeo bowed to economic strictures for 1933, leaving their racing honour in the hands of Enzo Ferrari’s private Scuderia with older models, and put the Monoposti into store. When the re-engined Monza cars proved fragile, the Milan management relented and released the Tipo Bs to Ferrari. Luigi Fagioli drove the first car to a win at Pescara, and he and Louis Chiron quickly added four more major victories. In 1934 a new 750-kg maximum weight Formula came into effect, for which the German industry had built powerful new all-independently-suspended cars which should have rendered the solid-axled, leaf-sprung Alfas obsolete overnight. An 85-centimetre minimum width rule led to the Monoposto’s cockpits being bulged, and with 2905cc engines and 255bhp the P3s won no less than thirteen major events, old 2.6-litre models winning twice, and a streamlined 3.2 model once at Berlin’s AVUS speedway. For 1935 modified suspensions, 3165cc and later 3822cc engines were adopted to stave off the German menace, but normally they were only successful in the absence of Mercedes and Auto Union. Nuvolari’s genius brought them the Nürburgring triumph to add to their fifteen other successes. Richard Shuttleworth won his first Donington Grand Prix in his private car in England and thereafter the Monoposto became one of the earliest, generally acknowledged ‘historic racing cars’.

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.

1962 BRM P578

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989 showing the the car that brought BRM its only World Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

It's the 1962 BRM P578 which Graham Hill drove in the 1962 and 1963 seasons, although the 'stack-pipe' exhaust system was quickly revised as the pipes had a tendency to drop off quite frequently. The Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection says this about the car:

'The ‘Stack-Pipe’

BRM’s Championship winner

Sir Alfred Owen made it clear to BRM’s personnel that 1962 was to be their make-or-break season. They had won their first, and so far only, Grand Prix victory at Zandvoort in 1959, and now the expensive new 1½ litre V8 engine had to prove itself successful. It did, and Graham Hill won his first Grand Prix at Zandvoort, went on to win again in the German, Italian and South African rounds, and ended the season as World Champion Driver. British Racing Motors won the World Constructors’ Championship; honour was satisfied, and the concern survived. BRM’s prototype P56 V8-engined car appeared in practice for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where it impressed as one of the sleekest and smallest Formula 1 cars of its time. The engine was a 90-degree twin-overhead camshaft V8 with Lucas fuel injection, designed by Chief Engineer Tony Rudd, and initially it offered about 188bhp at 10,500rpm. The prototype P56 car introduced a neat and light multi-tubular spaceframe chassis with strikingly handsome bodywork, and the type began the 1962 season with individual megaphone exhausts swept-up from each cylinder bank. These won it the name of the ‘Stack-Pipe BRM’, and Hill won the first heat of the Brussels GP with it, then went on to win at Goodwood and then in an epic near dead-heat with Jim Clark’s Lotus-Climax at Silverstone. The stack-pipe exhausts regularly came adrift, and were replaced by a complex low-level system at Spa. Hill fought a season-long battle with Clark, and his American team-mate Richie Ginther drove ably to take third place in Germany and second to Hill in BRM’s great day at Monza. BRM V8 engines sold well to private customers, and the P56s raced on through 1963 when Hill won the Monaco and United States GPs and Ginther excelled once more. The pair chased Clark home in the World Championship table. By that time, people had stopped laughing at BRM!'

The car was generally known as the P578 to differentiate the 8-cylinder car from the previous season's 4-cylinder P57, but because it had a P56 engine the car itself was known as such by BRM. Behind the P578 is the Donington Museum's 1954 BRM P30, V16 Mk2 No2, alternatively known as V16/05. After the demise of the 4½ litre/1½ litre supercharged Formula One at the end of the 1951 season the Mk1 and Mk2 BRM's were raced in Formula Libre events until 1955, after which the BRM team concentrated on the new Formula One 2½ litre BRM P25.

1995 Williams FW17

This is one of the Williams cars that I photographed at the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

It's the Williams FW17 that was driven by Damon Hill and David Coulthard in the 1995 season. The car was designed by Adrian Newey and had a 2,992cc V10 Renault RS7 engine. Damon Hill won four of the seventeen Grands Prix that season to finish in second place in the World Drivers' Championship to Michael Schumacher who won nine of the races in his Benetton. David Coulthard won one race and Williams finished in second place in the World Constructors Championship to the Benetton team.

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.

1935 Alfa Romeo Bimotore

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in March 1996.

It's a 1935 Alfa Romeo Bimotore, one of two cars that were built when the Alfa Romeo competition affairs were run by the Scuderia Ferrari team and it was an attempt to challenge the German Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars that were dominating the sport at that time. It has two engines, one at the front and one at the rear, and it was conceived by Enzo Ferrari and his development engineer Luigi Bazzi. The chassis was effectively a lengthened Alfa Romeo P3 chassis with an 8-cylinder inline engine at each end, those for one of the cars being 2,905cc and the other 3,165cc. The cars were first entered in the 1935 Tripoli Grand Prix, the 6.3 litre car being driven by Tazio Nuvolari and the 5.8 litre one by Louis Chiron. The cars proved to be fast, but the weight of the cars and the power of the engines took its toll on the tyres though Nuvolari managed to finish in fourth place behind 2 Mercedes Benz and an Auto Union despite having to make 13 stops for tyre changes. Louis Chiron drove a more conservative race making far less tyre changes and finished in fifth place. The project was abandoned before the end of that season and the larger engined car was dismantled, but the 5.8 litre car was sold to British driver Austin Dobson and it is that car that ended up in the Donington Museum. The photograph is rather spoilt by the Merryweather turntable ladder on the fire engine behind the Alfa. 

1989 Williams FW12C

This is a photograph that I took at the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

It's a Williams FW12C, a car that was used for all but the last four races of the 1989 season. It was based on the previous season's FW12, but a 3,493cc Renault V10 engine was used instead of the FW12's Judd V8 engine. Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese drove the cars, Patrese finishing in third place in the World Drivers' Championship and Boutsen in fifth place - both with the help of points won in the last four races of the season in the FW13B. Patrese didn't win any of the races but Boutsen won in Canada and Australia (the latter in the FW13B), Patrese finishing ahead of him in the Championship thanks to a greater number of high-placed finishes. Williams finished the season in second place in the World Constructors' Championship.

1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO

This is one of the cars that Audi took along to the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001, together with the Auto Union C-Type and D-Type pre-war Grand Prix cars. The car is seen at Coppice Corner during one of the demonstration runs.

It's the 1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO that took part in the North American IMSA GTO Championship in that year and was driven by Hurley Haywood, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Scott Goodyear and Walter Röhrl.

1955 Connaught B-Type

This is a photograph that I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1955 Connaught B-Type, chassis B7, and the book 'Great Racing Car of the Donington Collection' says this about it:

The non-Championship Syracuse Grand Prix, held in Sicily late in 1955, forms an historic landmark in racing history. The amateur driver C.A.S. 'Tony' Brooks took on the might of the works Maserati team in his unrated 2½ litre Alta-engined Connaught, and beat them on their home soil!  It was the first time that a Continental 'Grand Prix' had been won by a British car and driver since Henry Seagrave had won the San Sebastian in a Sunbeam in 1924. Rodney Clarke and Kenneth McAlpine (of the famous building family) had founded Connaught Engineering in 1947, to build a sports car for McAlpine to race. In a small works at Send in Surrey, they built a prototype powered by a modified 1767cc Lea-Francis engine, and its results prompted a production batch of the cars, financed by McAlpine.

Engineer Mike Oliver drove one of the cars successfully, and in 1950 he assisted in building a prototype Formula 2 Connaught, using the existing engine in a modified form. For 1951 nine F2 cars were built with Connaught 1864cc engines - still 'Leaf'-based but now developed almost beyond recognition as such. Between 1952 and 1953 the Connaughts never achieved major success; they lacked power although their road-holding and handling were as good as any.

The B-Type Connaught was prepared for 1954 Formula 1 racing with a special 2½ litre  four-cylinder Alta engine and initially all-enveloping streamlined central-seat bodywork. This was replaced for practical rather than technical reasons by a more normal 'slipper' body and it was one of these cars which made history in 1955.

During 1956 Connaught were a force in Grand Prix racing, but success - and real power - still eluded them. A C-Type car of advanced design was laid down for 1957, but McAlpine decided that the financial strain was too much to be borne alone and, when outside sponsorship was not forthcoming, he withdrew, and Connaught tragically collapsed.

1935 Brough Superior Dual Purpose

This is one of the cars I photographed in the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

It's a 1935 Brough Superior Dual Purpose, one of only 19 cars that were produced. The chassis and 8-cylinder inline engine were supplied by Hudson, the capacity of the engine being 4,168cc, although the DVLA record shows it to be 4,250cc. H&H Classic Car Auctioneers sold this car in October 2013, which presumably is when it was acquired by the Museum.

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, which was shown in the programme of the event as a 4.2 litre Kurtis Indy Roadster, and here is having a tow back into its place in the paddock. It was driven in the race by Frederick Harper. 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.

2001 Jaguar R2

This is one of the cars I photographed at the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

Ford had taken over the Stewart Racing Team after the 1999 season and the resulting cars from 2000 to 2004  were badged as Jaguars, none of which were particularly successful. The team was taken over by the Red Bull Racing Team in 2005. This car is the 2001 Jaguar R2 which was powered by a 2,998cc V10 Cosworth CR-3 engine. It was driven for the whole of that season by Eddie Irvine with Luciano Burti driving the second car in the first four races and Pedro de la Rosa taking over that car for the remainder of the season. Eddie Irvine posted the best result for the team with a third place in the Monaco Grand Prix.

1934 Maserati 8CM

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's the 1934 Maserati 8CM, chassis 3018, originally owned by Tazio Nuvolari, and this is the note about the car in the book 'Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection':

'In 1933, while the new Alfa Romeo Monoposti were languishing in enforced inactivity, the Scuderia Ferrari persevered with their old Monza models, fitted with more powerful 2.6 litre engines. This added urge proved too much for the fragile transmissions, which regularly failed and robbed thr Scuderia drivers of several good placings.  Tazio Nuvolari – the legendary Italian ace – suffered more than most. The Press began to call him a car-breaker. He and some of his team-mates broke with Ferrari and moved down the Via Emilia to buy competitive cars from the Maserati brothers in Bologna. These were the 2991cc supercharged eight-cylinder 8CMs, and the ex-Alfa Romeo aces quickly turned them into race winners. Alfieri Maserati had begun competitions in the 1920s, and in 1926 he modified an eight-cylinder Diatto which became the first Maserati racing car when Diatto lost interest in racing and dispensed with Alfieri’s services. He and his brothers Bindo, Ernesto and Ettore formed their own company to build competition cars and quickly proved successful, selling many cars to private entrants. Early in 1933 their 8CM engine was introduced, installed in originally 2.8 litre ‘two-seater’ chassis from the previous year. Three of these cars were produced before Maserati introduced their first Monoposto with incredibly slim chassis and body, only 62 centimetres wide. With the advent of the 750kg Formula in 1934, the later 8CMs were widened to meet the 85-centimetre minimum width rule, although this was cleverly achieved in the chassis and lower body sides only, leaving the upper part of the shell as slim and wind-cheating as before. In its original form the 8CM chassis was whippy and made the lightweight 210bhp car a ferocious thing to drive. Its braking was sophisticated, however, for the brothers had revived hydraulic operation for all four brakes – twelve years after their value had been proved by Duesenberg in winning the 1921 French Grand Prix. Burly opera-singing driver Giuseppe Campari gave the 8CM engine its first victory in the French Grand Prix, and then Nuvolari won the Belgian event in his brand-new privately-owned single-seater. The Mantuan won again at Montenero and Nice, was second in the Italian GP and led in Spain before his car failed him. This brilliant season was marred by the deaths of fellow Maseratistis Campari and Borzacchini in the Monza GP, but Nuvolari continued racing his slim-bodied car – number 3007 – into 1934. Early in the new season he wrecked this car in the Bordino Cup race at Alessandria, somersaulting it into a stout tree. A young newcomer named Carla Pedrazzini was killed in his unmanageable 8CM in this same event, but the indomitable Nuvolari was soon recovered and racing again. His new wide-chassis car – number 3018 – was second to Fagioli’s Mercedes in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara, and then the 8CM was replaced by a new Tipo 34 six-cylinder 3.3 litre model for the Italian GP. About twenty-three Maserati 8CMs were built in this period, nineteen of them single-seaters, and one – number 3003 – being based on a Bugatti chassis for Count Premoli, to form the PBM, or Premoli-Bugatti-Maserati. They were exceptionally popular among private owners, particularly since Alfa Romeo would not release their P3s at the time. Earl Howe and Philippe Étancelin ran single-seater cars with some success, while the American-born Cambridge undergraduate Whitney Straight ordered a three-car team. He had them modified by Thomson & Taylor at Brooklands, fitted with Wilson pre-selector gearboxes and stiffened chassis and even designed his own grille shape. These cars were raced widely and successfully by the Straight team and, in later years, by private owners. The immaculate and very original 8CM in the Donnington Collection is 3018, Nuvolari’s personal 1934 car; it is possible that it was built using some of the parts salvaged from his Alessandra wreck. In present form it is fitted with a Wilson pre-selector gearbox, which Nuvolari disliked and used only occasionally. The car was in the Collezione Giorgio Franchetti for many years and is one of the best-preserved of all the great racing cars of the 1930s.'

1961 Vanwall VW14

This is a photograph I took at the Donington Park Museum in September 2014.

It's 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 starting with the 1961 season, 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.

2000 Audi R8

May 2001 marked the first appearance of the Auto Union C-type and D-type Grand Prix cars at Donington Park since the late 1930s when Audi brought an Auto Union C-Type and a D-Type to the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting. They brought several other cars and motorcycles that day, including the one shown below.

This is the 2000 Audi R8, developed from the previous year's R8R and powered by the same 3.6 litre V8 engine. The R8 competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race six times, from 2000 to 2005, winning on 5 occasions and being beaten only in 2003 - by the Bentley Speed 8.

1959 Stanguellini FJ

This is a photograph I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a Stanguellini Formula Junior car from the late 1950s. Formula Junior was conceived in 1958 as a class of racing which would form a relatively inexpensive entry level class for drivers to take their first steps to a racing career. The engine, transmission and brakes of the car had to be sourced from production cars with a 1,000cc limit on cars weighing 360kg and 1,100cc for 400kg cars. Italian cars mostly using the Fiat 1,100cc engine were the most successful in the first two years as the British manufacturers still concentrated on the 500cc Formula 3 series. Cooper, Lotus and others soon started to produce mid-engined Formula Junior cars though, and by 1960 British cars were picking up most of the victories. This car was sold by the Museum in 1994 and in 2004 it was offered in auction by Bonhams who gave this information about the car.