Classic Silverstone Classic Photos

[Steve Holmes]

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This weekend one of the most significant historic racing events on the international calendar takes place; the Silverstone Classic.

The Silverstone Classic has been a main-stay for many years. Other events, such as the Goodwood Revival, may enjoy a higher status, but in my opinion, few events on the calendar combine both the quality and variety of the Silverstone Classic.

Back in 1993, when I was 21 years old and doing my OE, I decided to hire a car and drive from where I was living in London up to Silverstone for that years event. My main motivation for doing so was because at the time I was completely fixated with the old 1966-74 Can-Am sports car series. I already had a passion for motorsport history, and while there wasn't the massive available amount of information there is today on such things, I grabbed anything I could get. The Silverstone Classic had only been going a few years at the time, but was considered to be the most important historic racing event in Europe, so the magazines all did a good job promoting it and the fixtures that would be on show. For 1993, there would be a combined grid of Can-Am, 1960s/70s endurance sports cars, and 1970s racing sports cars. This was enough of a motivation to organize a trip.

At the time, while I had a real interest in motorsport history, I wasn't particularly knowledgeable on subjects other than those which took my personal interest, which, other than Can-Am, included American powered British and European GT and sports cars, American muscle and sports cars, and 1950s sports racing cars. For the most part, I was just looking forward to the adventure for what it was.

As it transpired, I enjoyed myself so much I returned again in 1994. The photos here I took during these two events, which I recently stumbled upon while down at our storage unit. Frustratingly, I also have the race programmes from both years, but they're buried somewhere in storage. I may need to try and dig them out to help ID some of these cars and the people who drove them.

Sorry for the quality of these images. My cheap little camera was a POS, and over time I'm sure the photos have deteriorated somewhat. Furthermore, I'm no photographer, I point and shoot, and hope for the best. But hopefully you enjoy these for what they are.

[Steve Holmes]

Talbot-Lago shares pit space with other single seaters.

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[Steve Holmes]

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[Steve Holmes]

There was a lot of excitement at the event over the appearance of this Vanwall, driven from memory by Martin Stretton.

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[Steve Holmes]

Birdcage Maserati's.

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[Steve Holmes]

Jaguar powered Lister Costin was driven by former 1970s touring car racer John Fitzpatrick. This was one of the earliest examples of a-ex professional driver competing at a historic event. Frank Sytner was also a regular at the time. But whereas Sytner drove fast but clean, Fitzpatrick drove like he was still racing touring cars in the 1970s, and the Lister was looking pretty battle-scarred by the end of the weekend. This sort of thing is now common at high-profile historic events, its almost expected the old pro's beat the crap out of someone else's hugely valuable historic racer, but back in 1993 there were a lot of grumblings about the Fitzpatrick's behavior.

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[Steve Holmes]

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[Steve Holmes]

One of the biggest surprises for me was the race for pre-1966 GT cars. I really had no expectations, but this event, and some of the cars competing, really blew my mind. Pre-66 GT continues to be the hero class of historic racing today.

This is Frank Sytner in Sir Anthony Bamford's beautiful 1964 Ferrari 250GTO notchback. From memory this cleaned up the 1993 event.

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[Steve Holmes]

Front row of the GT grid with the Ferrari sharing space with one of two Bizarrini's.

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[Steve Holmes]

This is the class I was really looking forward to. From memory these cars ran a full championship that took place throughout the UK and Europe. There was a big grid. Qualifying took place in the wet so some of the smaller cars got ahead of the Can-Am cars, but the fastest of the Can-Ams quickly moved ahead.

Charles and Peter Agg had a pair of McLaren M8Fs, including the old Team VDS car with its twin-turbo chargers. The turbo car ran like a dog, although it was said to produce over 1300 horsepower when it was happy. Joest Kalich was also racing one of the two BRM P154 Can-Am cars.

Note the pace car which was a brand new McLaren road car.

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[Steve Holmes]

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason brought along at least three cars to the 1993 event, including a Ferrari 250GTO, Maserati birdcage, and the infamous BRM V16. There was huge excitement over this car. It didn't run for very long and it was probably just as well I was also there for qualifying because that was the most anyone saw of it all weekend.

The BRM was an assault on the senses. You could hear it coming before you could see it, and it sounded like it was doing a million miles an hour because it revved so high and was so loud. Then it was come into view, and was usually travelling relatively slowly. It achieved little at Silverstone in 1993, and I've never seen another one since, but I'm really pleased to have experienced it. I still remember it to this day.

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[Steve Holmes]

Beautiful short nose Jaguar D Type. I prefer these versions to the long nose cars, and think they look much prettier without the aero piece that comes off the rear of the driver shroud.

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[Steve Holmes]

Pair of Ferrari 250GT SWBs.

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[Steve Holmes]

This was on display but didn't run. Not even for demonstrations. It was extremely original looking, even the tyres looked 25 years old.

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[Steve Holmes]

Lindsay Owen-Jones owned one of the Ferrari SWBs pictured above in post #13. He raced that car in the 1993 event, but for the 1994 Silverstone Classic he stumped up and purchased this magnificent 250GTO notchback. My photo doesn't really show it but the roofline was longer and more curvacious than the Bamford car raced by Sytner. Owen-Jones had apparently paid 6 million pounds for the car in 1994, which is a lot of money now, but was worthy of note back then.

The 1994 pre-66 GT race produced a couple of epic battles between the 250GTOs of Sytner and Owen-Jones, and the two very quick Cobras of Steve Hitchins and Bill Shepherd.

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[Steve Holmes]

This is the Shepherd Cobra mentioned above. Bill Shepherd still races a Cobra in historic events, he ran one at the 2016 Goodwood Revival. I don't know if its the same car pictured here or another one. Back in the 1990s the Cobra teams all had open tops. These days they all fit hardtops, for less drag. Back in the 1990s all they could do was tilt the windscreen right back so the little Cobras were less brick-like.

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[Steve Holmes]

This was a pretty looking oddity, a Bristol 450. I believe the car went through a few different guises in period, which included a hardtop roof.

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[Steve Holmes]

Shelby GT350, possibly Tim Buxton from memory. There were a couple of magazine articles on this car in the early '90s.

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[Steve Holmes]

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[Steve Holmes]

One of the two Bizzarrini's competing in the pre-66 GT races at the 1993 event. This one looked awesome with no paint, and the alloy body fully exposed.

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There were Maserati 250Fs everywhere!

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[Steve Holmes]

My fascination with these 1964/65 Falcon Sprints really got going when I visited the Silverstone Classic. They were a popular choice in the hugely competitive pre-1966 historic touring car races against Lotus Cortinas, Alfas, BMWs etc. From memory one of the Falcons won in 1993, and in 1994 there were several new cars built.

The FIA made mandatory these solid steel wheels which weren't actually factory wheels, but rather modern manufactured items built specifically for historic racing. They didn't look as good as the Minilites and Torq Thrusts most these cars ran previously, and I heard a few years later some of these wheels broke, thus reversing the use of them.

The FIA homologation weight for these Falcons was only 960kg or thereabouts, and these things were fitted with all the fibreglass panels the rules allowed.

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[Steve Holmes]

OK, Cobra anoraks will know more than me about the car pictured here. I believe this is the genuine COB 1, the 427 big block Cobra that was fitted with twin Garrett turbochargers.

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[Steve Holmes]

And speaking of turbos, this is the earlier mentioned Team VDS McLaren M8F twin-turbo car with its bodywork removed.

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[Paul B]

[QUOTE=Steve Holmes;60420]My fascination with these 1964/65 Falcon Sprints really got going when I visited the Silverstone Classic. They were a popular choice in the hugely competitive pre-1966 historic touring car races against Lotus Cortinas, Alfas, BMWs etc. From memory one of the Falcons won in 1993, and in 1994 there were several new cars built.

The FIA made mandatory these solid steel wheels which weren't actually factory wheels, but rather modern manufactured items built specifically for historic racing. They didn't look as good as the Minilites and Torq Thrusts most these cars ran previously, and I heard a few years later some of these wheels broke, thus reversing the use of them.

The FIA homologation weight for these Falcons was only 960kg or thereabouts, and these things were fitted with all the fibreglass panels the rules allowed.

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Some of the older 50s & 60s steel rims had riveted centres and some failures also occurred under race conditions, sometime around mid 60s or so they started to move to welded rim centres and as far as I have heard this solved the problem.

[Steve Holmes]

[QUOTE=Steve Holmes;60420]My fascination with these 1964/65 Falcon Sprints really got going when I visited the Silverstone Classic. They were a popular choice in the hugely competitive pre-1966 historic touring car races against Lotus Cortinas, Alfas, BMWs etc. From memory one of the Falcons won in 1993, and in 1994 there were several new cars built.

The FIA made mandatory these solid steel wheels which weren't actually factory wheels, but rather modern manufactured items built specifically for historic racing. They didn't look as good as the Minilites and Torq Thrusts most these cars ran previously, and I heard a few years later some of these wheels broke, thus reversing the use of them.

The FIA homologation weight for these Falcons was only 960kg or thereabouts, and these things were fitted with all the fibreglass panels the rules allowed.

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Some of the older 50s & 60s steel rims had riveted centres and some failures also occurred under race conditions, sometime around mid 60s or so they started to move to welded rim centres and as far as I have heard this solved the problem.

Yes you're right Paul. I think in the case of the Falcon Sprints, the FIA introduced these steel wheels to either slow them down or get them looking more correct. They were essentially a control wheel, the teams had to use that actual make.

[Steve Holmes]

Another of the 250GTOs, this one being one of the earlier fastback models.

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[Steve Holmes]

Martini Porsche 935 was display only.

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[Steve Holmes]

At the time I was obsessed the the cottage industry company TVR, and their fascinating fibreglass bodied sports cars. There were a few racing at Silverstone, including this early 1959 Grantura.

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[Steve Holmes]

Lister Costin Chevrolet. Its my understanding the Chevrolet engines began appearing in Lister sports cars after the Jaguars, as a way of keeping them competitive. But in historic racing the Jaguar powered versions usually seem to be faster. This was also the case at the Silverstone Classic two decades ago. This car wasn't as fast as the Jag powered example.

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[Terry S]

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For interest does anyone know what the two cars on left of photo are? Second may be a BRM.

Love the Fosters signs when they were madly trying to "Fosterise" the world.

[ERC]

Great stuff Steve - but you knew I'd say that! I'm not sure about today, but I think paddock entry is possibly more important than the racing with these cars, especially at Silverstone, where paying spectator viewing (for photographers) isn't quite as good as at Goodwood.

[Steve Holmes]

For interest does anyone know what the two cars on left of photo are? Second may be a BRM.

Love the Fosters signs when they were madly trying to "Fosterise" the world.

Sorry Terry I really wish I could remember.

[Steve Holmes]

Great stuff Steve - but you knew I'd say that! I'm not sure about today, but I think paddock entry is possibly more important than the racing with these cars, especially at Silverstone, where paying spectator viewing (for photographers) isn't quite as good as at Goodwood.

Thanks Ray, I've never been to Goodwood for the racing, I've only visited the place when there was nothing happening there, but I am sure you are right, for photographing the on-track action, Goodwood would be far better than Silverstone. The first thing that struck me about Silverstone, was the distance between the grandstand and track. It felt like the track was a mile away.

[Steve Holmes]

Nice little Sunbeam Tiger that raced with the Pre-1966 GTs.

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[Steve Holmes]

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I had a real fascination with TVR sports cars back then, and was stopped in my tracks when I saw this. This is a Trident Clipper.

Back in the mid-1960s TVR produced a striking looking Ford V8 powered GT called the Trident. It featured a Trevor Fiore designed wedge shaped body and pop-up headlights, among other things. Sadly, because the company was strggling financially, it couldn't actually put the car into production, and the rights for the Trident ended up with W.J Last who'd previously built Peel micro-cars, and a new company was established called Trident, specifically to build these new sports cars. Named the Trident Clipper, it differed slightly to the TVR version, most notably in that its headlights were integrated into the front bodywork, but mostly the two were very similar.

These are very rare cars, and this is the only one I've ever seen in the flesh.

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[Steve Holmes]

Interesting Indy Car that was in one of the pit sheds but never actually ran.

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[Steve Holmes]

Another one of the Falcon Sprints.

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[Steve Holmes]

These two were among several cars entered by David Piper at the 1994 Silverstone Classic.

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[Steve Holmes]

Lister Costin Chevy.

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[Steve Holmes]

To this day I don't know if this was the real deal or not.

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[Steve Holmes]

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[Steve Holmes]

Long time Classic & Sports Car magazine scribe Julian Balme's Ford Falcon Sprint historic racer. I believe he bought the car back in the 1980s, and still owns it to this day. The car is featured on occasion in the Our Classics section of the mag. Even though historic touring cars were racing when I visited the Silverstone Classic, Balme's Falcon was in the classic car park with the road driven vehicles and I stumbled upon it on my way back to my rental car. He drives the car on the road, including to and from race tracks to compete.

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