Citroën SM

Citroên SM, Traversée de Paris, Montmartre, 2016

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Citroën, Paris, France.  Produced from 1970 to 1975 this was Citroën's flagship car of the early seventies.  It was also a high performance four seater with a top speed of around 140 mph and a 0-60mph time of around 8.5 seconds.  Unusual for such a fast car, the SM was front wheel drive. As Citroën owned Maserati at the time, power was from a Maserati V6 of either 2.7 or 3.0 litres and giving 170bhp or 180bhp.  The gearbox was either 5 speed manual or 3 speed automatic.  It was a fast genuine Grand Tourer with a long range from its big tank and 19mpg and good ride from the Citroën self levelling suspension. The car was quite big for a coupé and had quirky looks and a cut-off Kamm tail.  Nevertheless a true classic.   Famous drivers included Mike Hailwood of bike and car racing fame and he used to drive to the European races in it.

Maserati Gran Tourismo MC Trofeo GT4

Mark Klenin, Maserati Gran Tourismo MC Trofeo, Sonoma 2016, Pirelli World Challenge.

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Maserati, Modena, Italy.  This car is the racing version of the road going Gran Tourismo S and was designed for a 2010 one-make series.  It has a 4.7 litre V8 488 bhp engine powering its steel chassis and carbon fibre body.  The body has been lightened and given more aerodynamic aids compared to the base road car.  The windscreen and windows are all lightweight lexan.  The one make series ended with the 2015 championship.  Since then the cars have been raced in GT4 spec in series such as the Pirelli World Challenge and the European GT4 championship.  In GT4 spec the power is reduced to 430bhp.  A beautiful car like almost all Maseratis. 

1956 Fiat 306/2 Bartoletti

Fiat 306/2 Bartoletti transporter at the Le Mans Classic 2016

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Fiat, Turin, Italy.   This is a very famous and much travelled racing car transporter.  Maserati actually owned it first and had Bartoletti convert the 1956 Fiat bus chassis into a racing car transporter.   After Maserati withdrew from F1 racing in 1957 they sold the transporter to Lance Reventlow who needed one for his Scarab cars. Scarab raced in F1 in 1960 and in Formula intercontinental in 1961. In 1962 Scarab folded and the transporter was bought by Caroll Shelby. Shelby added the third axle which was needed for the weight of his Cobras.  After Shelby stopped using it, it went to Team Lotus and then Alan Mann Racing.   The next owner was David Piper, who rented it to Steve McQueen for the film Le Mans.  In the film it appears in a number of different colour schemes!  The Fiat originally had a Fiat 12 cylinder engine but at some stage that was replaced by a 11.5 litre Leyland 6 cylinder.   

1961 Maserati T63 Birdcage

Maserati T63, GP de l'Age d'Or 2002, Autodrome Linas-Montlhéry.

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Maserati,  Bologna, Italy.  This T63 is a 2 litre mid-engined Maserati Bircage built in 1961.  They are sometimes nicknamed "Supercage" due to the increased amount of tubing compared to the original front engined Birdcagers.  At that time the Maserati concern was owned by the Orsi family and the mid-engined Bircages were the last in a long line of Maserati racing cars.  A V12 version of the T63 finished fourth at Le Mans in 1961 driven by Dick Thompson and Augst Pabst.  A T63 driven by Maurice Trintignant and Nino Vaccarella also came fourth in the 1961 Targa Florio.  Just seven T63s were built originally of which just one was a long wheelbase car. I believe this one was built up on a spare LWB chassis.

1958 Maserati 250F

Steve Hart, 1958 Maserati 250F, à Dijon pour le Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or 2015

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Maserati, Modena, Italy.
Top Speed / Vitesse Maximale 266 kph.

Mon astuce pour faire des belles photos
Choisissez une vitesse d'obturation comme 1/250 ème de seconde pour donner une impression de vitesse sur la ligne droite.  Avec l'expérience, vous pouvez réduire la vitesse d'obturation.

Top photo tip
To give an impression of speed on the straight, pan and use a slower shutter speed.  Here I used 1/250th which guarantees a picture whilst blurring the background.  As you get better you can use a slower shutter speed but this requires practice.