Brooklands Double Twelve Festival 2011 – Photo Gallery

The Brooklands Double Twelve Motorsport Festival 2011 was held 18-19, June at Brooklands in Surrey, England. This year’s event represented the largest motoring competition held at Brooklands since the circuit closed in 1939.

Organised in association with the Vintage Sports Car Club, the event featured more than 100 classic and vintage cars taking part in driving tests and a Concours d’Elegance over the two days (The Double Twelve Driving Concours), with approximately 90 pre-war cars taking part in a speed sprint on the adjoining Mercedes-Benz World circuit (The Double Twelve Sprint) on Saturday.The competitive and technically challenging sprint course allowed competitors to stretch their driving abilities to the limit, while showcasing pre-war motorsports at its finest to a substantial crowd. On Sunday, the Test Hill Challenge took place in the early afternoon, with everything from a Sinclair C5 to giant pre-war racing cars running up the hill.

The VSCC Speed Trials, held entirely on Saturday, brought an entry of some ninety Pre-war Sports and Racing cars and were held in blustery conditions following several downpours on Friday night. Nonetheless the twisty and challenging course of 882 metres was mostly dry and the sun shone for most of the day, although the early runners did suffer slightly from the damp in both the morning, practice, and afternoon, timed, sessions following another downpour during lunch on the day – almost perfect timing by the weather gods! The official business of two timed runs in the afternoon was fairly soon dispatched and many competitors enjoyed third or even fourth runs, just for fun! Competition for FTD was very close with honours going to James Baxter with the 1934 Fraser Nash Single Seater on 41.34secs, closely followed by Rob Cobden on 41.65 secs with his Riley Falcon Special, and then Pete Candy on 41.65 secs with the Riley Super Rat. Robin Tuluie took FTD in the Vintage Class with a time of 43.49 from the 1929 Riley Menasco Pirate with six litres on hand! Fastest Sports Car was Dr David Pryke with his 1936 Morgan/Riley 4/4 with an impressive time of 45.74 secs.

The Test Hill Challenge was highlighted by Chris Williams’ 42-litre Packard-engined Bentley and his tire-smoking Napier Bentley, the latter powered by a 24-Litre Napier Sea Lion W12 aeroplane engine. The rear tyres on the Napier Bentley were no match for the prodigious torque of the engine, with Williams doing his best imitation of a Top Fuel Dragster while headed up the hill. The Napier Bentley sported the following sticker, “If Driven Responsibly Report as Stolen.” As the pictures will attest, it was not reported as stolen.

To the uninitiated, Brooklands was a 2.75-mile motor racing circuit and aerodrome in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world’s first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain’s first airfields. The circuit hosted its last race in 1939, and is today home for the Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as a venue for vintage car, motorcycle and other transport-related events.

Photographer Tim Scott documented the Brooklands Double Twelve Motorsport Festival 2011, offering the following 160 images that not only capture the diverse selection of cars, but also the wonderful English eccentricity present at the event. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.

Brooklands Double Twelve Motorsport Festival 2011 – Photo Gallery (click photo for larger picture)

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[Source: Brooklands Museum; VSCC; photo credit: Tim Scott / Fluid Images]