This year would be my third year attending the Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch and this year was by far my favourite! As per usual the quality of cars in the show area, in the pits and on the track was outstanding! This year I explored the track a little more and found some fantastic places to get shots of the cars and experience the sights and sounds of the racing right up close! Cosworth DFVs are simply incredible from about 8 feet away! So loud!
As you walk in through the gates you first arrive at the show and shine area so this is where we will be starting this epic photo dump haha! The first car to really catch my eye coming in from the side entrance was this pre war non super charged Bentley. It looks a lot smaller than the 4.5s I have seen before so I’m not going to say it is. Pre-war cars often had many different body types on the same chassis with the same running gear though so it may be a 4.5.
Parked next to that was this really nice Jaguar. The Minilite style wheels really suit it!
A couple of cars down was a Triumph TR7. I used to hate these but they have really grown on me in the past few months.
Continuing along this row of cars we can find an Austin 1300GT with a grill badge stating the car came from Romford, just up the road from where I live, along with a Triumph Herald.
Airfix make a 1:32 body of the Triumph Herald, might be a future slot car project. Airfix also do a 1:32 body of Jaguar’s E-Type of which there were plenty on show. These were my favourites. The white and silver GT cars both had red leather interiors which suit the cars so well!
Above where the Jaguars, Bentley and other assortment of cars were the Porsche owners club. There was plenty to see ranging from modern Boxsters, Carreras and 911s to plenty of classic air cooled 911s.
The “I left my indicators at home” club were also present. Joking aside I love the old 8 Series. Most certainly a car on my wish list!
Behind the BMs were a group on Lancias.
The obvious car is the Delta Integrale, the road going version of the famous rally car.
This late 80s four door Delta was also super cool! A lovely daily classic!
The Ferrari stand also rather packed. Highlight for me was this Testarossa.
I actually really like the F355. I’d love one but I would imagine you get asked if it’s an MR2 underneath quite a lot.
A lot of both modern and classic cars were on display. A nice stand for the Ferrari enthusiast.
An oddity for me were these Renault Alpines. I know of the earlier rally car but not these mid engined 80s cars!
This Avantime was also cool. I’ve heard of this strange MPV before but have never actually seen one.
Kit cars also had a good turnout. The Shelby Daytona was a beast:
The Ford GTs are also nice to see!
There was a little gathering of Caterham and Lotus 7 type kit cars next to the pits too!
These two were parked next to them. The Datsun and Sunbeam are obvious classics but it’s nice to see these 90s cars being celebrated too!
Before we wander into the pits though lets have a quick look at the Cosworth DFV display.
Here we have a Shadow DN1:
This Rothmans liveried March, driven by Jochen Mass, was the car involved in Gilles Villeneuve’s fatal accident in 1982.
In the pits the first thing we see are the Formula Fords. These are great fun to watch and are awesome little cars but I’m afraid I didn’t get too many pictures of them as I was somewhat distracted by the touring cars that will follow
There were two classes of touring cars racing this weekend. One was pre 1966 and the other ranged from about 1970 to 1990. The Pre ’66s were my favourite! They were a really mixed class racing everything from huge Ford Galaxies and Falcons to tiny Mini Coopers.
The 1970-90 class was just as diverse. Mostly E30 BMWs and Rover SD1s but two MG Metros, a Renault 5 GT and a Mustang broke it up.
The main pit buildings by the edge of the track were taken up by more Formula 1 cars and Can-Am cars. Most of the F1 cars were of the ground effects period. It’s an amazing experience to be able to get this close to them and see them in so much detail.
Anyway, on to the track action!
In previous years I have always sat on the pit straight but I explored a little more this year and discovered that you can stand on the inside of Druid’s hairpin. To be able to get so close to some of the cars was just mind blowing! These are some of the shots I got of the Pre ’66s:
The later touring cars:
Of course the highlight was the Formula 1 cars. Being able to get so close to these special machines on track was truly an honour.
If you would like to see the cars in action then please click the video here to be transferred to my YouTube video if the day!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post. I certainly enjoyed my day out! If you would like to see more of these posts make sure to follow this blog or follow me on the following social media platforms
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