1959 Maserati T61

This car competed in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1997.

It’s Valentine Lindsay’s 1959 Maserati T61, generally known as a Maserati Birdcage on account of its space frame chassis and which the programme of the events says has a 2,850cc engine. It's chassis #2453, which was totally wrecked in an accident at Daytona in late 1959 but the remains were used to re-create the car in the early 1990s.

Aston Martin DB3S

This is a photograph I took at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's three of the Aston Martin DB3S cars that competed in the Classic Car Sports Car Race and all have the 6-cylinder inline 2,922cc Lagonda engine.  Number 29 is the 1955 car of Hubert Fabri, one of the DB3S customer cars, chassis DB3S/102, and was originally one of three cars provided for Australian Tony Gaze's Kangaroo Stable. Next to it is the car driven by Sally Mason-Styrron in the race which is chassis DB3S/9, a 1956 Works car raced by the Aston Martin team in 1956 and 1957. At the end of the 1957 it was sold to Australian David McKay. The red car on the right is Valentine Lindsay's 1955 customer car, chassis DB3S/110.

 

Classic Car Sports Car Race - Silverstone 1994

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Classic Car Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Valentine Lindsay in his 1955 Aston Martin DB3S (DB3S/110) followed by Stirling Moss in his Lola Mk1 and Wessel von Loringhoven in his 1959 Porsche 718 RSK. On the right-hand side is Katharina Schmidt in her 1955 Cooper T40 Bobtail, the car with which Jack Brabham made his Grand Prix debut in the 1955 British Grand Prix.

Maserati Birdcage

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in 1996 of these three Maseratis that are generally referred to as 'birdcage' cars because of the intricate tubing that makes up the chassis of the car.

On the left, car number 37 is the 1960 Maserati T61 of Tony Smith which has a 4-cylinder inline 2,890cc engine and is chassis 2470. Next to it car 38 is a similar 1959 T61 of Valentine Lindsay which was driven in the race by Stirling Moss and is chassis 2453. The programme of the event shows car 39 to be the identical T61 of Nick Mason, but the car pictured is actually the 1961 Maserati T63 of Edmond Pery, chassis 63002 and apparently has a 3 litre V12 engine. The red car behind the T63 is the 1930/31 Maserati T26 of Anthony Hartley which is chassis 2518 and has an 8-cylinder inline 2½ litre engine.

Maserati T61

This car competed in the Louis Vuitton 1950s Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

Listed in the programme of the event as a 1959 Maserati T61 with a 2,890cc engine, but generally known as a Maserati Birdcage on account of its space frame chassis, it was entered for the race by Valentine Lindsay and driven by Stirling Moss. It's chassis #2453, which was totally wrecked in an accident at Daytona in late 1959 but the remains were used to re-create the car in the early 1990s.

On 17 August 2017 I showed photographs of three examples of the Maserati Birdcage, including  this one (then coloured red), at Silverstone in 1992.

Turtle Drilling Special

This car competed in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's Pre '65 Grand Prix Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It was driven in the race by Valentine Lindsay and it's the 1960 Meskowski Schmidt Offenhauser Special in the #23 'Turtle Drilling Special' livery in which it failed to qualify for the 1962 Indianapolis 500 Mile race in the hands of Leon Clum. Originally built by Wally Meskowski for Peter Schmidt for the 1960 Indianapolis race, it was driven as #44 by Bob Veith and finished in eighth place. By 1998 it had returned to the USA and was repainted in its 1960 livery.