Silverstone dream machines

The world’s greatest racing cars converge of Silverstone for the COYS International historic festival. Make sure you don’t miss it

Sixteen races, 128 laps, over 500 cars, 65,000 spectators and a £3million Ferrari auction all add up to make three action-packed days at the Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone on July 25-27.

In 1997, this burgeoning historic racing festival is celebrating 50 years of the world’s leading motoring marque, Ferrari. And with over 500 of Maranello’s finest machinery set to attend and at least 100 of those making it onto the track, Silverstone in mid-summer is the only place to be to savour the sight and sound of some truly exotic machinery. Some of the greatest names in racing history will return to the track, some in the cars in which they thrilled the crowds over the decades. Stirling Moss, Froilan Gonzalez, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Jody Scheckter, Chris Amon and many others will be in action in races ranging from a Pre-War Sports Car Race to the Maranello Ferrari Challenge. An extraordinary Ferrari GT race is due to take place on the Sunday, when over 30 of the marque’s classic racers will take to the track together. Over the following pages, you can read our exclusive track test of the Ferrari 555 Super Squalo, which, for the first time in over 40 years, is set to return to battle with 1950s rivals like Maserati in the Pre-1960 Grand Prix race. But there is much more to the Coys Festival than the Ferrari spectacular and this year’s entry list promises rare cars from nearly every decade of motorsport.

Pre-war record-breaking Talbots, Aston Martin Le Mans racers, a Nuvolari Alfa, an ex-Malcolm Campbell Mercedes 38/250, Villeneuve’s 312T3 Ferrari in which he took his first GP win — the list goes on and on. In the coming issues we will bring you a closer look at many of the machines you see on the track over the Festival weekend, but if you want to know just why people say that racing’s not like it used to be, make sure you don’t miss the Coys International Historic Festival.