The FIA Masters Historic Series is, as the name suggests, a race series to host a wide range of historic racing cars including vintage Grand Prix cars, saloon cars and Can-Am cars. It hosts events across Europe and the United States.
The 3rd of an unbelievable 15 events in the series was the Masters Historic Festival at the Brands Hatch in Kent which has hosted 12 British between 1964 and 1986.
Along with the action on track, plenty of car clubs came down the show off their cars. The first I encountered as I entered through the side gates, was the Surrey Ferrari Owners Club who brought a good variety of Ferrari’s cars including this beautiful 250GT Lusso
Along with a F40. This is the first F40 I think I have seen in person and they really are spectacular! It’s crazy to think that something as advanced as this was built before my W124 Mercedes which looks like something from the stone age in comparison.
The 488GTB was representing the current line up of cars.
The 550 Maranello is a stunning Grand Touring car. I always really liked these and I think that they have aged very well and look very elogant compared to the aggressive cars of recent design…
…As does the F430! A car I never much liked when it was ‘new’. The coupe looks really very smart and the spider looked quite subdued in the blue! If I could ever afford a Ferrari a F430 is a blue, black or silver would suit me well. It’s not all angles and doesn’t scream ‘look at me’ like the newer cars. I’d have one of the older pop-up light cars but I’d imagine you get a lot of “Is that a MR2 underneath mate?”
As with all show and shine type things I have to hunt around for the Mercedes. My pickings were some what slim… On the ‘Mercedes Owners Club Stand’ were just two cars. An A208 CLK Cabriolet and a C215 CL. 
A W111 fintail saloon in a 1970s brown with 1970s light brown interior was parked a fair distance away. Car of the show for me and it wasn’t even on show!
BMW had a fair few 2002s going round the track but only one car in the show, this absolutely immaculate 2002 again in a very 1970s colour!
The last of the German cars were brought to us by Porsche. A lot of Porsche owners brought their cars out for us to see which is nice, Porsche have a fantastic history in Motorsports.
As with a lot of these classic type car shows the majority were British or American.
There was both an MGB convertible and fastback coupe. The coupe is one of my favourite British cars!
As is the Jaguar E-Type! Again though, I prefer the coupe to the convertible.
This Rover 400 is a future classic… Maybe…
The Americans were out in force both on and off the track though. On the show and shine there were loads of cars! This classic El Camino powered by a GM LS crate motor was cool!
As were these replicas of the cars from the famous chase scene in Bullitt!
The Corvette owners club brought along examples of the C3-C6 cars. I didn’t take a picture of the C6 for some strange reason though. Just picture a bright yellow C6 standing on some gravel and you sort of get the idea.
Although the C5 is ‘the better car’ of the 3 it really lacks the character of the C3. 
I nearly took out a bank loan to buy a C4 once. It was black like the one pictured but with red interior. Financially not getting it was a good decision but they do look like great fun!
A lot of American cars turned up to compete in the pre-1966 saloon car race. There were a lot of Fords!
A Mercury Cyclone finished off the American pack. This was getting sideways on more than one occasion! Looked like a handful but was rather spectacular going around the track.
The giant American cars did look good going round with the British Minis and Cortinas. I did get some footage although I warn you I did film it on an actual potato so the quality really is not that great!
BMW 2002s rounded off the field of vintage saloon cars.
The main reason I went though was for the classic Formula 1 cars! I managed to get some footage of the front engined racing, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL3mmu18blA but I couldn’t actually find where they were pitting so I couldn’t get any pictures 🙁 There was a classic Maserati racing which I would love to learn more about!
The majority of cars were from the 1970s and 1980s. It was a pleasure to be able to walk along behind the pits to get some photos of these cars with the cowlings and some of the bodywork removed to see what’s going on underneath. A really rare treat!
The James Hunt memorial stand had some interesting cars too. From the McLaren M11 he won the 1976 championship in to the Hesketh 308 he started racing in Formula 1 in. The Hesketh looks huge next to the McLaren!
All in all it was a really interesting day. If you didn’t get to the Brands Hatch Masters this year then I highly recommend going next year! On July the 2nd and 3rd there is a Masters event at Donington Park, so if it is easier for you to get to the Midlands than Kent be sure to check it out!
Thanks for reading!
