Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

More 250F-related news:

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SIR STIRLING MOSS BACK IN THE HOT SEAT

• Racing legend to lead both Maserati and record GP cars parade
• Famous 250F to front special celebrations on Super Sunday

Racing legend Sir Stirling Moss OBE will be back behind the wheel of one of his favourite grand prix cars to lead both record F1 and Maserati centenary parades at this summer’s Silverstone Classic (25-27 July).

The world’s biggest ever F1 parade will mark 50 grands prix at Silverstone – a major milestone that will be reached in July. Maserati is the award-winning event’s official ‘Celebration Marque’ for 2014 and will be celebrating its first 100 years with a special cavalcade of its finest road and competition cars.

Both special commemorative parades will take place on the full Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on ‘Super Sunday’ 27 July and, appropriately, both will be fronted by Moss driving a Maserati 250F.

Hailed as one of the greatest grand prix cars ever created, the 250F was pivotal in Moss’ early F1 career. He raced one to his maiden grand prix podium at the superfast Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 1954, and in 1956 won at both Monaco and Monza when competing for the Maserati factory team.

“It will be very, very special to lead both the wonderful parades in a 250F,” enthused Moss, now aged 84. “The Maserati is probably the most beautiful looking and user-friendly Formula One car ever built; it’s delightful to drive and a real collector’s item. It was also very important to me. Not many people know this, but my father went to see Mercedes in 1953 to ask Alfred Neubauer [the team’s legendary F1 team manager] to give me a drive. He said that he’d been impressed by my driving in crappy cars but wanted to see me in something that could win. So we bought the Maserati. My first race was the Swiss Grand Prix at the tricky Bremgarten circuit and, in the wet, I put the Maserati on pole in front of [Juan-Manuel] Fangio, [Alberto] Ascari and all the Mercedes! As I said, it was a fantastic car to drive.”

The Maserati 250F that Moss will be driving at Silverstone is the chassis originally raced by Roy Salvadori back in the fifties and is one of just 26 ever produced. In total, the 250F won eight grands prix and was instrumental not only in establishing Moss as one of Britain’s top sporting stars but also in the great Fangio winning world championship titles in both 1954 and 1957.

“It’s always wonderful when things fall into place so perfectly,” enthused Event Director, Nick Wigley. “To have Sir Stirling Moss – the only British driver ever to win a grand prix in a Maserati – leading both parades in a magical 250F is just the best possible scenario. Even in our wildest dreams, we couldn’t have hoped for a finer sight.”

Full details on tickets (which must be purchased in advance) to see Sir Stirling Moss leading both anniversary parades can be found on the official website.
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[Rick]

Today's news re the Classic:

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TODAY’S STARS RACE DOWN MEMORY LANE

• Four BTCC Champions join the Silverstone Classic line-up
• Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden team up in Lotus Cortina
• BTCC series leader Colin Turkington debuts in a BMW ‘Batmobile’
• Crowd pleaser Tim Harvey returns in a Ford GT40

No fewer than four champions from the UK’s premier MSA British Touring Car Championship will be competing at this month’s award-winning Silverstone Classic (25-27 July).

Tim Harvey, titlist in 1992, is already a firm favourite at the annual Classic having wowed the crowds racing his old flame-spitting Labatts Sierra RS500 at last year’s event. Now he returns to race a Ford GT40 in Saturday evening’s FIA Masters Historic Sports Car showdown, which features a full-capacity 58-car grid of Le Mans style GTs and prototypes from the Sixties and early Seventies.

Now, however, Harvey will be joined by fellow BTCC champions Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington who are all gearing up to make their eagerly anticipated debuts at the World’s Biggest Classic Motor Racing Festival later this month.

"They will all really enjoy the truly epic experience and I’m sure they will get just as addicted as I now am,” predicted Harvey. “I just hope they don’t roll up their sleeves too far and use current BTCC driving tactics!

“On a slightly more serious note, the Silverstone Classic is an absolutely awesome event with so many fabulous cars – what’s more they are not just on show but actually competing at flat-out speeds. To be racing a wonderful GT40 this year will be every bit as special as it was to be reunited with my old RS500 last year. It’s a thrilling prospect and I can't wait."

Unlike Harvey, who now commentates on the BTCC for ITV4, both Neal and Shedden are still among the series’ front-runners as members of the crack 2014 Honda Yuasa Racing squad. Come the Classic, though, they’ll be swapping their regular Civic Tourers for a newly acquired Lotus Cortina, which they will be sharing in the popular two-driver race for Under 2-Litre Touring Cars (U2TC) on Saturday morning.

“It’s pretty well-documented that Matt and I get on well – although that said, we’ve never actually shared a car like this before,” said Shedden who won the coveted BTCC crown in 2012.

“I did have to chuckle when Matt told me we’d need to get some in-car cameras sorted. I asked if they would be for data-gathering, and he said, ‘no, it’s because it’s my car and I want to make sure you’re not beating the hell out of it!’ Of course the race will be primarily for fun, but as ever, we will go out there and do the best job we can. What I particularly appreciate about historic racing is that there are no expectations.

“In the BTCC, there’s always so much at stake, with a massive weight of pressure in front of thousands of people every race weekend from the manufacturer to the team to the sponsors and fans. In historic racing, you can just go out there and have some fun, which is what I’m looking forward to the most. The Silverstone Classic looks like being a fantastic event, and I truly can’t wait!”

Back in May, Neal attended the Silverstone Classic Media Day and the three-time British Touring Car Champion (2005, 2006 and 2011) was clearly impressed with what he experienced.

“It was amazing walking around the pits as there were cars – and people – whose photos I had pinned up on my bedroom walls when I was growing up. It was just fantastic!” he enthused.

“The whole classic scene is growing massively and it’s something I’ve always fancied having a go at… though, I’ve got to say, it’s something of learning curve – I was braking twice as early as I normally would and still didn’t think I was going stop.”

As it’s exactly 50 years ago that racing legend Jim Clark took the BTCC crown racing a Lotus Cortina, it’s doubly fitting that two former BTCC champions should be sharing one of these souped up saloons from the Sixties – even more so as Shedden, like Clark, is a Scot.

Turkington was crowned BTCC champion in 2009 and is currently topping the 2014 standings in his multi-victorious eBay Motors-backed BMW 125i M Sport. The highly rated Ulsterman is maximising the mid-season break not only to get married but also to spend his honeymoon competing in two very different saloon cars at the Classic. He is racing a mighty V8-powered Ford Galaxie from the Sixties in the pair of Mustang Celebration Trophy Proudly Presented by Pure Michigan showdowns plus an iconic BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’ in the two JET Super Touring Trophy races. The BMW wears the famous BMW ‘Art Car’ livery as penned by US artist Alexander Calder back in 1975.

“I’ve never raced anything like it,” admitted Turkington. “I’ve no idea how competitive we’ll be, but I’d like to do some more historic racing if I can. It sounds like a great event and I just want to go and enjoy it – more so as it’s my honeymoon and I don’t know quite how I’ve managed to be at Silverstone!”

Those wanting to see today’s BTCC heroes racing down memory lane can buy tickets and hospitality via the official website. Prices start from £39 and all tickets – which must be purchased in advance – include access to the two packed racing paddocks, trackside grandstands, live music concerts, funfair and a feast of terrific family entertainment.
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[Rick]

More on the Sir Jack Brabham tribute:

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‘BLACK JACK’ HONOURED AT SILVERSTONE

• HGPCA races dedicated to triple champion Sir Jack Brabham
• David Brabham joins record Grand Prix car parade in Brabham BT24

The remarkable racing career of Sir Jack Brabham will be honoured later this month at the award-winning Silverstone Classic (25-27 July).

The three-time Formula One World Champion passed away in May aged 88 and is still the first – and only – man to win the ultimate F1 title driving one of his own cars. In total, the Australian legend – nicknamed ‘Black Jack’ – won 15 Grands Prix in an amazing career spanning from 1955 to 1970.

Paying tribute to these outstanding achievements, the two races organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association for rear-engined F1 cars that competed in 1965 or earlier have been dedicated to Brabham. They will be renamed the Jack Brabham Memorial Trophy for HGPCA Pre ’66 Grand Prix Cars and prizes will be presented by David Brabham, the youngest of Jack’s three sons.

David – himself an ex-F1 driver and Le Mans winner – will also help to head the record parade of Grand Prix cars, which will be one of the highlights at the Classic on ‘Super Sunday’. He will be driving his father’s Brabham BT24 from 1966.

The special cavalcade will feature more than 100 GP cars and is part of the high profile celebrations to mark Silverstone’s 50th Grand Prix – an historic milestone reached earlier this month in the race won by Lewis Hamilton. Fittingly the winning roster also includes the name of Jack Brabham who won Silverstone’s 10th Grand Prix back in 1960.

"The Silverstone Classic this year will be a very special event and one I am looking forward it to very much,” said David. “It will be an amazing experience for me to be part of the massive parade of 100 Grand Prix cars, driving the Brabham BT24 in honour of my father. There will also be quite a few cars in the parade that my dad drove through the years, so it will be good to see all of those as well. Jack meant a lot to a lot of people around the world and this is another great celebration of the man and his success."

David will be joined at the front of the huge and historic parade by Stirling Moss, who will be behind the wheel of an iconic Maserati 250F. It’s a significant mount, too, as although Jack is renowned for competing in Coopers and, of course, his own Brabhams, he did once race a 250F and that intriguingly was at Silverstone in 1956.

“Whether it’s through his own outstanding achievements or via the cars that hail from the company he founded, Jack Brabham will always be a motor sport colossus and we are privileged to be honouring his legacy at this year’s Silverstone Classic,” said Nick Wigley, event director. “Jack will always be associated with the move to rear-engined F1 cars and his two titles in 1959 and 1960 are testament to that. So it seems completely right to be dedicating the pair of HGPCA races for those machines – some of which he actually raced himself in period – to his memory.”
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[Rick]

OFFICIALLY THE BIGGEST CLASSIC YET.

Silverstone festival establishes new world record number of entries
Popularity continues to spiral with unprecedented crowd numbers
ITV4 television coverage starts later this month

This year’s Silverstone Classic – highlights of which will be screened on ITV 4 next week – was another exceptional record breaker.

Already firmly established as the World’s Biggest Classic Motor Racing Festival, last month’s three-day extravaganza attracted a record crowd plus a new world record number of race entries. The unrivalled event also staged the world’s biggest ever parade of Grand Prix cars as well as special celebrations to mark Maserati’s centenary and 50 years of the Ford Mustang.

A crowd of 94,000 flocked to Silverstone – the biggest in the award-winning Classic’s 24-year history – and they were treated to 24 on-track grids featuring no fewer than 1,125 entries which covered the full spectrum of motor racing history. The unprecedented number of entries tops last year’s figure of 1,113 and establishes yet another new global benchmark for any motor sport event.

A special one-hour television programme showcasing many of the Classic’s most notable moments will be screened on ITV4 at 21:00hrs on Thursday 14 August and will be aired again at 19:00hrs on Saturday 16 August and at 13:05hrs on Sunday 17 August.

Sadly the 2014 event also witnessed its first fatality in its 24-year history when Denis Welch lost his life competing in the HGPCA race for pre-1966 Grand Prix cars on Sunday afternoon. A tribute to Welch, and details of his funeral, can be found on the official Silverstone Classic website.
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Rick - Admin
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